The Murky Water Syndrome
by AmandaArtiste
Summary: HQ's been flooded by an alien madman and something's lurking beneath the water. Now it's up to Dr. Yazmine, Elle, X, Delia, and the other brave volunteers of the MIB to keep the other agents and aliens from harm without winding up on the menu themselves!
1. Midnight Swim

This time, the last suit you'll ever wear…is a wetsuit! 

Warning: This is an original story owned and written by me! Some characters belong to Chanda or Delia, others belong to MIB The Animated Series, and the rest are mine! Do not plagiarize or sue me, unless you plan on getting hunted down and neutralized!

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part One: Midnight Swim

It seemed like any other night that summer, Billy Wyatt and his best friend Joey Davis were taking their girlfriends out for a swim. They had picked the perfect place, to go skinny dipping, where no one would catch them. 

"Come on Karen!" Billy called as he crept into the old rundown facility that had once served as an aquarium for the city. Something a bit new and exotic to attract tourists to New York City. 

Joey and Chelsea weren't far behind. It was calm and deserted inside the aquarium, almost eerie. Joey tossed his shirt aside and ran towards the tank in the center of the stage area. "Joey!" Chelsea called. "Wait, are you sure this is such a good idea?"

Joey stopped dead in his tracks and turned to his girlfriend with a groan, "C'mon Chelsea, it's after midnight and no one's gonna be around some rundown place like this."

"But," Chelsea looked at the tank strangely, she could have sworn that she saw something dark move just beneath the water's surface, "why would an abandoned aquarium have a pool full of water sitting inside? Wouldn't it have been drained by now or something? I think somebody's still here."

Billy turned to Joey and they both burst out laughing, "Oh I get it," Billy teased, "you're scared!"

"Am not!" Chelsea insisted.

"Aw, poor little Chelsea's afraid of the dark scary water." Billy went on taunting her.

"No I'm not!"

"Don't pay any attention to him Chelsea," Karen told her friend, "I'll go first."

Billy watched as Karen stripped down to her undies and dove into the tank. She swam out a little ways, then turned and waved. "See Chelsea, it's okay. Come on in you guys!"

Chelsea lingered back while Joey and Billy rushed towards the tank. Something deep within, an unexplainable instinct that couldn't relent to her teenage recklessness was telling her to stay back.

Billy was racing towards his girlfriend, this was the best spring break ever! He had a feeling that tonight was going to be his lucky night….he was wrong.

"C'mon Billy! What are you waiting for?" Karen laughed, waving her arms and splashing around.

Two black pools noticed the splashing and sounds echoing through the water. Looking up it saw the female swimming around and shouting something in a foreign language it couldn't understand, couldn't speak.

Something stopped Joey, maybe his girlfriend's silent pleas, maybe an instinct that wouldn't be suppressed any longer. Who knows? The point is, he stopped. Staring blankly at Billy who for some strange reason, slowed down too. His mad sprint had become a slow walk.

"What?" Karen called, "Don't tell me you_ boys _are scared too?"

The creature grew closer to the surface, to the legs that were kicking back and forth. She didn't suspect a thing, in the ocean maybe, but in an abandoned aquarium with no one around? Karen's laughter died quickly, then turned into a sudden gasp.

Billy watched breathlessly as something jerked his girlfriend beneath the murky water. "Karen?!"

She surfaced again. A little shaken and uttering a surprised noise. "B-Billy---there's something down here!"

Chelsea backed away from the tank. She knew her friends feet would never touch dry land again. She didn't know how, she just knew it.

Karen slowly swam towards the edge of the tank, she had to reach it, it was her only chance! 'Just keep swimming,' she told herself. 

The meal was making a swim for it. No matter. She'd never get away. It felt good to toy with something, to watch it squirm and struggle despite the futility of it all. After being toyed with itself, the creature was enjoying itself immensely!

"You're almost there Karen, keep swimming!" Joey called as he and Billy made their way to the edge of the tank.

Karen didn't hear them, she stared ahead into the eyes of her friend. Chelsea's terrified expression told her everything, she wasn't going to make it.

No sense in dragging it out any longer, best to move now and strike fast. Karen's body came closer as the creature swam upwards, almost at a vertical slant. The poor human was doomed, what a price to pay for adolescent fun!

"Please, hurry and grab me." Karen pleaded with the two boys as they edged over to the tank.

Karen's request was met, but not by either of the boys.

"NO!!!"

Joey and Billy toppled backwards and then gazed ahead terrified, as Karen disappeared before their eyes.

Dragging her into the depths the creature had the advantage now. The little human put up quite a fight, kicking and clawing wherever she could. But she was no match for the 9,000 pound creature. In a flash of teeth and skin, the battle was decided.

Chelsea sank to her knees, the two boys slid away from the tank. The water on the surface turned red, "Karen…" Billy whispered in disbelief.

Joey patted his friend on the back, "It wasn't your fault man, there was nothing you could do."

Chelsea's sobs broke the long silence that followed Joey's words. A flashlight shone down on the three frightened teens. They looked up to see a police officer standing above them, in the bleachers.

"What are you kids doing in here?!" she demanded.

"We came to swim and our friend went in the tank." Joey began explaining as Billy buried his face in his hands.

"Where's your friend now?" the police officer asked, shining her light onto the bloody surface of the pool.

"She was attacked by something in the water." Billy murmured.

The police woman looked at the bloody pool and didn't flinch. "What was it?"

"We don't know." Joey spoke quickly.

Chelsea glared at him, this had been the stupid idea of the guy's and now her best friend was dead and they were gonna get silent about it?? Not while she was around!

"You know what it was Joey!" she spat, tears running down her cheeks.

The officer turned the light to her, "So what was it?"

Chelsea drew in a breath and spoke, "It was a-"

"Yes?"

"a-"

"Spit it out!"

"A SHARK!"

________________________________________________________________________


	2. Call in the Pro

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 2: Call in the Pro

Dr. Opus looked up from what he was working on. Down in the office by the holding tanks in the aquarium. There had been quite a ruckus just a few minutes ago. Yanei came down and pulled off her human mask. "Had some kids up top, they came to swim. Thought that the place was deserted."

"And?"

"One girl swam out into the tank." Yanei said, almost coldly. "She was killed."

"That'll teach those kids to stay out of places like this." Dr. Opus muttered, "Looks like Brig won't need to be fed tonight."

"Experiment 562 just KILLED someone!" Yanei snapped, rushing over to the madman and yanking him by the collar. 

"That's what she was designed to do!" Dr. Opus shouted. 

Yanei released him and he crashed down onto the floor. "Not humans! They weren't created to kill humans. You said no casualties. We funded this project to unleash these unholy weapons on the Egnorks, not humans!"

"The sharks will be ready for use as weapons, but you can't blame me and my team for the death of some hooligan teenager that snuck in here!" he insisted. "Relax Sergeant Yanei, things are going according to plan. In four days I'll deliver to you and your people a breed of animal that will obliterate the Egnorks and end their attack on your planet for good."

"I don't like the way things are going, you seem unconcerned about the cause, and the consequences should ANYTHING go wrong." Yanei said sternly, "Perhaps the Hiquip Council is in over their heads this time." 

"That's treasonous talk." Dr. Opus laughed, "Don't worry, my beasts will live up to our agreement, and you'll be free of your enemies the second they set foot in the water."

"You will ship these things straight to the Egnorks' planet?" Yanei inquired, "None of them are to be left here or taken to any other planet, including my own. Is that understood Doctor?!"

"Understood."

"Even the MIB couldn't rid us of this problem," Yanei sighed, "Let's hope your living killing machines can."

"You've seen what they can do," Dr. Opus chuckled. 

Yanei turned and glared at the coldhearted alien, "Dr. Opus, what I just saw was an innocent civilian of Earth killed in front of her closest friends. That's not progress, it's murder. And I'm holding you responsible for her death should the MIB ask questions about your little 'pets'!"

Yanei left the room and went by the holding tank, passing an officer on her way. She stared at the murky waters behind the thick glass, "Officer, I want that girl's remains fished out of there. It's the least we can do." she watched a dark image appear. It seemed to be gliding through the water and got bigger in size. 

Yanei leaned forward, it looked like it was---speeding up?

It was amazing the kind of vision it had beneath the murky water. The creatures on the other side of the glass were still baffled and didn't have the slightest idea of what was swimming towards them at such an alarming rate. They'd know in a matter of seconds though.

"Officer!" Yanei grabbed the man's shoulder. "What is that? Tell me it isn't the-"

"THE SHARK!" the officer shouted and pulled Yanei back just as the dark gray creature struck the side of the tank. 

Glass cracked and finally shattered, sending water spewing everywhere as the creature burst through, full force, it had temporarily escaped it's prison. And then it beheld it's next meal.

"We've got to get out of here!" the officer insisted, pulling Yanei to her feet and dragging her away from the beast as it swam towards them in the deepening water that was pouring out of the whole in the tank. 

The hallways filled with water and the two scrambled to their feet, having been knocked over by the blow of the rushing water. The only place they had to run to was the office where Dr. Opus was working. 

"Doctor!" Yanei gasped, the officer forced the door closed behind him. "It's loose! That monster of yours is loose!"

"Brig?" Dr. Opus turned around and stared at the water seeping out from beneath the closed door. "But that's impossible, those tanks were used to contain Orcas once. How could a shark break through one?"

"Quite easily," Yanei assured him from the spot on the floor where she'd collapsed.

"So, what do we do now?" the officer questioned.

"We wait," Dr. Opus shrugged, "there are drains in the halls and soon the water level will decrease and the shark will be unable to move. Once it's weakened enough from the lack of water, we can move in and tranquilize it with these guns." he laughed a moment, "Looks like Brig's all ready for shipment, ay Sergeant Yanei?"

Yanei looked up at the crazed scientist, "What have we done?" she asked herself.

Her people were desperate for a means of defense that would defeat the Egnorks and end their raids upon their planet, but this? This was ruthless, merciless. Their worst enemies didn't deserve an attack by creatures like this! These things were wild and loose, they could very well wipe out an entire species simply by inhabiting the waters of the world on which they lived! What gave her people the right to use such a thing, especially with the great and almost certain risk that it would and could be used against them. Things had a way of coming back to those who tampered with nature.

BAMB!

"What was that?" Dr. Opus asked as the door shuddered on it's hinges.

"I t-think it's trying to get in…" the officer gasped, pressing his back against the door, using all his strength to hold it shut.

"How much water is out there right now?" Yanei demanded.

"Given the holding capacity of the tank, and the rate of drainage," the doctor ran a few quick calculations threw his brain. "I'd say three, maybe four feet."

"It can ram a steel door in a depth that shallow?" Yanei couldn't believe this. "And it's after us! That thing knows we're in here! It's almost like it's thinking, showing advanced intelligence and hunting skills."

The doctor nodded, almost proudly, this disgusted Yanei.

Grabbing his collar and slamming him against the desk she hissed, "What DID you do to those sharks?!?"

"Only one got loose you know, in a moment she'll be too tired to swim." he didn't sound worried at all. "Genetic enhancements were part of the funding agreement. You wanted the same 'side effects' that the researchers got fifteen years ago, nine years ago, well-this is what it takes. You've heard the same horror stories as me. The sharks hunted down the scientists, killed all but one scientist, her assistant, the photographer, and a young human girl. What, you didn't expect this to happen? Don't be a fool, discovery and scientific advancements always come with a price."

"The stakes are too high this time, I want those 'things' destroyed!" Yanei commanded.

"I'm afraid you don't have absolute say on that Sergeant," Dr. Opus chuckled, "the Council has to issue the order. And they've just given me clearance to ship these things out."

"What? When?!" Yanei couldn't believe this, these monsters would destroy everyone who dared to set foot in the water.

"While you were out admiring my work."

"I don't mean to interrupt," the officer at the door spoke up, "but the shark's stopped ramming the door and the water's not flowing under it anymore."

"Good," Dr. Opus exclaimed, picking up a tranquilizer gun, "time to package these fish for delivery."

"You're experiments are insane!" Yanei snapped.

"Maybe so," Dr. Opus laughed, yanking the door open and firing the gun. The tranquilizer dart pierced the shark's thick skin and rendered it motionless, "…but at least I get paid for them!"

That was it, Yanei knew she was in over her head. She'd cautioned the Council against rushing into this means of weaponry, now she had to go over their heads.

Dr. Opus motioned for the officer to come out into the hallway and help him shove the giant killing machine onto the lift. "The Council did require one tiny thing though." he told the officer.

"What's that?"

"Oh, something that could've been taken care of had I placed a security camera in the tank."

"Huh?"

Yanei eavesdropped on the conversation, "They want to be sure that the creatures can live up to all that I've promised, so before I can ship them tonight, I have to come up with some filmed proof of their destructive abilities."

"How are you going to do that?"

"By letting my 'creations' go for a swim."

The officer stood there shocked, "You can't be serious, those things will kill everyone! How would you ever find and recapture them if they got loose into this planet's ocean?"

"We're not placing them in the ocean…" a ghastly smile crept over Dr. Opus's dark face. "…we're going to flood a very large facility here on Earth and allow the Hiquip Council to witness the destruction of the MIB HQ!"

The officer was dumbfounded, Dr. Opus laughed manically, "What better way to prove how efficient my 'pets' are than to unleash them on the best of the best and let them RIP them to shreds! Imagine it, MIB HQ is the one place on this planet where you're guaranteed to have some of the most powerful and strongest, not to mention the smartest beings in the universe gathered together in one area. And once that area is flooded, it belongs to the sharks. And anyone who gets wet, regardless of their special capabilities, will be killed! There's no more perfect way to show off my creations than to show the Council how they can destroy any creature in their path no matter their prey's strengths."

The officer shook his head as the fish was hoisted onto the lift, "I gotta agree with that Sergeant lady in there, you're experiments are insane. What gives ya the right to kill off all those innocent people?"

"Oh it's nothing personal," Dr. Opus laughed, "it's just science."

"Science my-" Yanei was infuriated and then spotted the vent above the counter, "The Council would never approve of this 'test', I'm going to alert the MIB and personally see to it that this maniac is stopped!"

Dr. Opus and the officer walked back into the office and noticed the grate to the ventilation shaft's opening was lying on the floor. "Should we stop her?" the officer asked, unsure that he was willing to.

"Forget that pain," Dr. Opus grunted, "there's nothing she can do now. The MIB and all the unsuspecting aliens in the HQ building, are fish food!"

________________________________________________________________________


	3. Wipe Out!

*Special thanks to Delia97, her IM brainstorming with me helped add some comedy to this tragedy. ^_^ Thanks girl!*

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 3: Wipe Out!

One A.M., soon it would be morning. Normally the MIB found time to sleep (the night shift started) but this time they were mostly all out and about wrapping up the last of an unexpected load of alien tourists which were forced to land on Earth when an engine blew on their way to Saturn. That meant a lot of grumpy aliens who needed housing and food. Agents were scurrying all over the place. There were aliens from all across the galaxy and other regions of space on board the shuttle and now they were all crowded into the tiny HQ building. Zed---was NOT happy.

"Well then tell him that were gonna need more rooms cleaned out and ready to receive occupants, PRONTO!" Zed snapped at the communicator screen in front of him. "We need to find sixteen more rooms and get these passengers out of the middle of the main floor. No one sleeps until this problem is taken care of and we get these extraterrestrials some rooms!"

Zed looked out of his office and down to the main floor where the passengers were all huddled into the center, grumbling, tired, and unmanageable. It reminded him of flights being canceled at the airport and large numbers of families exhausted and irritated looking for room to sleep and in a panic about where their baggage had been placed.

Elle and X were pushing through the crowd and trying to hand out living assignments to the few aliens whose rooms were ready. 

"I hate it when aliens act like humans." X grumbled.

Elle jabbed her heel onto the top of his foot. "I hate it when you act like a jerk!"

X strained against himself, not willing to be imprisoned for strangling his partner. No matter how annoying she was.

She fought her way through the crowd, this was bad, a crowd this big was a buffet to the watery terror that was about to be unleashed upon the MIB HQ. "Excuse me," she tapped on the shoulder of the closest agent to her, "can you tell me where to find a Dr. Yazmine?"

Agent W turned around and stared at the teal alien woman behind her, "Oh, um, she's in the lab downstairs, if you take that hall-" W pointed and then with a sigh looked around at the ever growing crowd, "-you know what, why don't I just take you there myself."

"If you think it would be faster," Yanei agreed, "there isn't a moment to lose."

"Okay," W led Yanei down the hall and towards the lab. Yanei only hoped she wasn't too late. Maybe she would be lucky. Maybe Dr. Opus would be unable to reach the MIB HQ building before she had a chance to warn Dr. Yazmine?

"OW! Watch it would you?!" Dr. Opus shouted. 

"Sorry," the officer whispered, lowering the pipeline into the shaft from the emergency exit above. "Are you sure you want to go through with this. I mean, these are the MIBs were talking about here, there's no telling what they'll do to us if we're caught!"

"Oh, they'll probably just blast us with some high powered gizmo that they've got lying around, disintegrating us and launching our ashes into deep space."

"Oh, is THAT all," the officer cringed as he motioned for the doctor to cut on the water.

The water was turned on and the elevator shaft began to fill with water. "Now that's the last shaft right?" Dr. Opus called.

"Yes!" the officer called back, "What now? Some of these shafts are bound to seal off once the systems detect the water?"

"That's why we've brought so many pumps," Dr. Opus called, "First we flood the elevator shafts, then we flood the ventilation systems, and THEN we build up the pressure in the water pipes below the main level and into the lower levels causing them to burst! All but the living quarters and offices from Zed's on up will remain dry."

"Sounds like you've got water on the brain," the officer muttered.

"Just do it if you want to get paid. I want these agents and aliens swimming with the fishes in less than half an hour!"

"What if something goes wrong with your perfect little plan?" the officer questioned, he pulled himself out as the water began rising.

"Ha! I'm a genius my boy," Dr. Opus grinned, "My plans are flawless, NOTHING can go wrong!"

Kay turned towards the Twins who were babbling something from their station. "What's up?" Jay asked.

"Seems elevator shafts are being flooded on all sides of the building Slick." Kay replied calmly, "Better check it out."

"What do we do about all that water though, we open those doors and we'll get drenched, and Zed does not want to deal with flooding on top of all this mayhem right now!" Jay looked up at the office and the displeased figure of Zed that was shaking it's head at the chaos below. 

"Simple, we take the stairs." Jay stared at Kay for a moment, that was a lot of climbing, "We go up to the roof, open the emergency exit hatches on top of the shafts and see what's causing the flooding."

Jay hated the thought of taking on all those flights of stairs, but given the choice between that or staying down here with a shuttle load of angry aliens, he'd take stair climbing any day.

Kay turned quickly to the Twins, "Alright guys, Jay and I are gonna go see what the problem is. I want you two to seal off the shafts and keep the HQ area from flooding."

The Twins nodded and uttered sounds of agreement as Kay and Jay rushed down the hall to the stairs. They passed Delia and R on their way. Jay snickered, he knew where Delia was headed, her little decorating attempt for the kitchenette hadn't set well with Zed.

Zed returned to his chair, he knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night, not unusual. Just as he popped a couple more aspirin into his mouth---in walked another headache.

"Uh Zed, you wanted to see me?" Delia entered with R lagging behind, Zed's office wasn't his favorite place to be. It seemed that every time he was in there, Zed was yelling at his partner over something. Whether it was over putting peanut butter in X's shoes or slugging Jay with a folder full of important paperwork.

This time Zed decided to be direct with her, "Agent Delia, can you tell me what Skittles are for?"

"Um…to eat and for throwing and use in Chinese Checkers when you lose the marbles!"

she replied after giving the matter some thought. 

Zed stared at the agent for a second, whatever the boiling point of his blood was, he was certain that Delia had reached it. "Agent Delia, I'm only going to ask you this once, what is an entire bag's worth of Skittles doing ALL OVER THE WALL?!"

"They're sitting there---looking---cool?" 

R drew back a step, Zed's face reddened and he knew his partner was in for another lecture, oh how he hated laundry duty!

Mustering up all the patience he had Zed continued, "WHY are they all over the wall? It's a wall Delia, not construction paper for some preschool art project!"

"Because it was all blank and white and BORING!" Delia insisted, "I just made it a little more colorful and interesting, that's all? Sheesh, it's not like I use M&Ms."

R snickered at this. Zed shot him a look.

"Agent Delia, if you want to use some artistic license in this building then go borrow some blank canvas from Agent W. Don't use a blank wall! It's a white wall for a reason Delia! Leave it white! If I wanted decoration I'd give V the go ahead to hang some wallpaper!"

"But-"

"No buts!" Zed snapped, "You two are going to go down there right now and remove that candy from the wall! Understand??"

"What wall?" asked Agent Delia.

R clasped a hand over Delia's mouth before she could object further. "yes sir---" he said for her.

R shuffled Delia out of the office as Zed collapsed against his desk, "Lost marbles," he mumbled, "Delia's lost HER marbles, that's for sure."

"I heard that!" a voice called from down the hall.

Zed groaned when she poked her head back into his office, "What now?!"

"It's about the candy removal thing," she muttered, "Uh, where do we keep the blow torch?"

Zed's eyes widened, what did she use to stick those things on the wall? He decided for the sake of his blood pressure that he didn't want to know, "OUT! Get out now!"

******

U and W were working on filing away some forms in an office on the lower level. "We'd have been done hours ago if you didn't have to go and do everything by the book." W hissed.

"I prefer to do it right the first time," U replied, everything seemed to be in order.

W shook her head and hopped back up onto the desk, "I left you down here thirty minutes ago while I went up top to help with the crowd, PLUS I had to show some alien how to get to the lab and you're still not done yet!"

"Some alien wanted directions to the lab?" U asked, suddenly paying attention to her.

"Yeah, said her name was Sergeant Yanei of some Hiquip planet and that she needed to speak to Dr. Yazmine right away."

U jumped up and took his partner by the arm, "What?! You didn't even know why she wanted to talk to Dr. Yazmine and you lead her down to the lab?!"

"Yeah, so?"

"SO?!" U dragged her out into the hall and over to the elevator. "We've got to get to Zed's office and find out if she had clearance to go to the lab! You know the kinds of weapons and technology that Zeeltor keeps in there! What were you thinking?!"

"I-"

"That's right, you WEREN'T thinking!" U answered for her as the elevator binged.

"Stop trying to sound like my father!" W snapped. "She seemed perfectly fine. I don't think she wanted to tamper with anything and she didn't act like a spy!"

"How long ago did you leave her?"

"About a minute or two ago." W shouted. "I took her halfway to the lab and pointed to where she needed to go, I knew I'd have to come back and drag you away from the forms before you kept us both down here all night Mr. Protocol!"

U was about to scold her some more when the elevator doors came open and they were swept away by a wall of water. "U!!!" W bubbled as she went under.

He burst up and grabbed hold of the railing by the stairs, "I think we should use these." he gulped.

"This was NOT my fault!" she spat water in his face and staggered up the stairs, struggling for balance as the water rose.

******

"Ah yes!" Dr. Opus laughed, looking at a monitor he'd brought from his office. "The lower level is flooding! Someone must've tried to use the elevator."

"Great," the officer sighed, "we've got the ventilation system flooding and the pipes are ready to burst. Now what?"

"Now---" Dr. Opus laughed, pressing a button on the remote in his other hand, "---we turn my little pets loose in their new home!"

A genetically enhanced Tiger Shark wriggled in it's net which was dangling just above a staircase on the main level of the HQ building. "But it's not flooded there yet!" the officer protested.

"It will be-" Dr. Opus sneered.

******

Yazmine and Zeeltor were working with a new blaster design, something multi-purpose but practical. It would fire ice beams, heat rays, laser blasts, and knock out gas cartridges, yet it would be small enough to be concealed within an agent's jacket and quick to power up.

"Dr. Yazmine?!" a female's voice called from the doorway.

"Yes?" Yazmine looked up as Zeeltor continued to manipulate wires within the metal casing of the gun. 

"I'm Sergeant Yanei of the Hiquip Council." Yanei gasped, "I'm afraid we have a problem here that only you can solve!"

  
"Me? What kind of problem?" Zeeltor looked up as Yazmine suddenly grew serious.

"It's right up your ally, doctor." Yanei replied.

******

Delia and R were in the kitchenette removing Skittles from the wall, or trying to anyway. 

"Urgh!" Delia groaned, "I can't believe this! Why can't Zed just leave my masterpiece like it is!"

"The blow torch isn't working." R sighed, "What did you use to stick these things up here anyways?"

"Just some crazy glue---" Delia answered, "---that I borrowed from Zeeltor."

R moaned, they'd NEVER get the candy off that wall now!

Suddenly Delia looked up, "Quit playing around R!"

"Huh? What'd I do?"

"You know what you did!" Delia shouted, "Now quit throwing water on me!"

Delia was looking up at R as she spoke and another drop of water hit her in the face.

"Hey!"

"It wasn't me!" R pointed upwards at the vent just above them. It was rather large. But the kitchenette was right in the center of that hallway so it helped regulate the airflow when the door was left open on the hot days. Now instead of cold air, cold water was trickling out!

"What the-"

Before Delia could finish her sentence a burst of water came out of the vent and sent both agents toppling backwards.

"OH NO!" a Worm cried.

"The COFFEE!!!" the other three yelped, rushing towards the coffee maker.

******

Kay and Jay were almost to the roof now, Kay still climbing stairs at full speed, Jay lagging behind, whining the whole way. Kay's communicator went off just as they had one more flight to go. "Hold it Slick." Kay motioned to his partner who happily collapsed onto a step.

"Great." Kay muttered, "The ventilation system for the lower and main levels have been flooded too. Seal it off guys." 

Jay looked over at an air vent, "At least the water isn't building up far enough to reach beyond the main level."

"That's one thing to be grateful for Slick," Kay sighed, "But we've still got some elevator shaft flooding to look into."

The sound of equipment moving around on the roof made Kay grow silent, Jay did the same. It sounded like something was being lowered down into an elevator shaft, but what?

"Better have a look," Kay said, he tried to open the door to the roof but it wouldn't budge, "It's been welded shut!"

"Tough break." Jay shrugged. "Whatever's being lowered down isn't gonna be on the roof anyways."

Kay turned to Jay and nodded, "You're right Slick, let's get down to the main level and see what's in the shaft."

Jay groaned, he had a bad feeling about this!

******

"You mean to tell me that those 'things' are replications of the monstrosities that were created by the original team of researches on Inglebarel?!" Yazmine gasped once Yanei had finished explaining about the sharks and their purpose.

"I'm afraid so, but you must understand, the Council entered into this agreement with the best of intentions. No one on this planet was ever meant to be hurt!"

"The worst experiments ever performed in the universe were done with the best intentions!" Yazmine spat, she couldn't believe that she was going to have to go through all this madness again, for the THIRD time!

"Fascinating!" Zeeltor commented cheerfully, earning him glares from both women.

"You were the one who saved the researches, on both occasions, and I've heard of a shark wrangler who accompanied you, perhaps she can-"

"NO!" Yazmine shouted, "I'm not dragging Laurel into this, not again!"

"Laurel?" Zeeltor puzzled for a moment and walked over to a computer.

"But you must understand, the building is being flooded and with these things loose, it's suicide to get into the water!"

"I don't care, I almost lost her fifteen years ago to ignorant researchers that tampered with nature and then again nine years ago when more researchers who claimed to have learned from past mistakes tried to do the same lame brained experiment again! I won't put her in danger a third time!" Yazmine leaned against the counter, "It's like you said, it's suicide to get into the water, I can't let her go swimming with those killing machines."

"Laurel Weaver? Agent Elle?" Zeeltor asked, turning away from the screen.

"Yes." Yazmine nodded, "I used to take her on field studies and let her perform experiments and research with me while I was off and abroad all throughout space gaining an expertise in predatory animals and natural destructive phenomenon."

"And she's the shark wrangler?" he asked Yanei.

"Nine years ago she was, it was a 'summer job' I believe, she was notified of the repeat incident and returned to Inglebarel to help kill off the dangerous sharks." Yanei continued to explain the incident as water silently crept down the hall, leaking from various air ducts and the stairwell.

"I'm very sorry that all this is happening again." Yanei apologized, "But please understand how desperate my people are, our enemies are persisted, we felt that this drastic coarse of action was our only hope!"

"HOW did you find out the genetic testing information necessary to recreate the effects that were part of the behavior of the previous sharks?!" Yazmine demanded.

"Does the name Dr. Opus ring a bell?" Yanei asked.

"Opus?" Yazmine gasped, "That crackpot?! I can't believe he sold out!"

"Dr. Opus?" Zeeltor questioned.

"He was one of the researchers on the original team." Yazmine explained.

"Ah."

"Your knowledge and the shark wranglers skills may be the only chance the agents and aliens in this building have for survival." Yanei insisted, "If I'd only realized sooner exactly what the Council and I had done-"

"Oh I'll tell you what you've all done!" Yazmine snapped, "You've taken one of the deadliest experiments of all time and unleashed it on a building full of innocent and unsuspecting people. What you've done, Sergeant Yanei, is sealed all our fates for a war that could've been resolved peacefully! But instead of giving the MIB negotiators a chance to resolve the conflict your Council has decided to go behind our backs , violate several scientific guidelines, and play God with nature! We're all going to die because of your idiocy!"

Yanei and Zeeltor were speechless, things did look bad. Time passed and the three aliens stood there with nothing more to say. Zeeltor looked up a while later, "What's that sound?"

Yazmine and Yanei heard the strange noise too. "It sounds like---rushing-"

"WATER!" Yanei shouted as the room started to flood as a wave crashed through the door.

"Get out of the water!" Yazmine shouted.

Everyone climbed up onto the counters, Zeeltor grabbed Lucy's dish.

"Blitz!" Yazmine called as the alien firefly rushed over to her. "This is the one nightmare of my life that I'd hoped never to relive," she turned to Yanei and jeered, "Thank you so much for making me relive it a THIRD time!"

Zeeltor seemed strangely delighted by it all, "Oh excellent!" he exclaimed. "This will give me a chance to test out my new experimental diving gear!"

"What?" Yanei asked, looking at Yazmine, "Don't ask."

"Here we go." Zeeltor said, handing wetsuits to the two women from the top shelf of one of his holding cabinets. "One for each of you, one size fits all!"

Yazmine pulled on her wetsuit and looked out onto the murky water that filled the once bone dry lab, "This is just how it started the last two times." she whispered, "And you know what they say-"

"Third time's the charm!" Zeeltor replied happily.

"I don't think pessimism will help Dr. Yazmine." Yanei spoke, pulling up the zipper to her wetsuit.

"Just wait until you see those things rip through steel doors and laser proof glass walls," Yazmine spat, "then tell me to be optimistic!"

"Maybe I should go first and make sure it's all clear?" Zeeltor offered.

Before Yazmine could stop him, he placed the fish bowel shaped helmet on his head and dove into the water. It was only a few feet deep and Yazmine's screams fell on deaf ears as Zeeltor waded out of the lab and down the hall…a move he would later regret.

________________________________________________________________________


	4. The Disaster Approaches

*Once again, thank you Delia97 for your IM brainstorming ideas and support. Let's keep the laughs coming! ^_^*

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 4: The Disaster Approaches

R grabbed Delia's arms and drug her out of the kitchenette, leaving the door open which allowed the hallway to flood. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she spat out water and commented on the taste. "Hey, this stuff is salty, like ocean water!"

"Yep, we'd better get out of here fast." he choked. "The whole level's gonna be under water soon!"

They made their way down the hall and up to Zed's office, the hallway got drier as they approached, the people on the main floor had no idea about what was rapidly rushing towards them.

"Zed!" Delia called, pushing open his door and stumbling in, soaking wet.

Zed looked up from his phone conversation and noticed the agent and her partner, dripping water all over his office floor. He was afraid to ask.

"What now?! Can't you see I'm busy?" he snapped.

"There's a problem down in the kitchenette Sir." R began.

"I know, someone glues Skittles all over the wall!" he glared at Delia. "And I don't suppose you two came up here to tell me that you've finished scraping them off?"

He glanced down at some documents, he was going to need to fill out an order for some costly cleaning chemicals to melt the crazy glue that Zealtor had invented for Delia's little art project. "I'm not in the best of moods right now Agents, I think it's best if you both just leave."

"But---" they both protested.

"NOW! Or I'll reassign you both to Antarctica!"

Delia and R looked behind Zed to the hallway down on the main level where a large wave of water was rushing forth.

Their eyes widened and they each took a step back as they noticed the aliens and agents standing just a few yards away from the wave, oblivious to what was coming at them.

Suddenly Delia noticed something large and dark swimming along with the wave. It looked over forty feet long! Just then, it hit her. The salty water, the need to flood the HQ, it must have all been done for that…"Zed---SIR!"

"Not NOW Agent Delia---I'M BUSY taking care of another one of your disasters!" Zed signed the document and pushed it aside.

"BUT SIR!"

"NOT ANOTHER WORD!"

"SHARK!"

Zed shook his head, opening up yet another folder full of forms. "WILL YOU STOP MAKING A SCENE AND LET ME FINISH THIS PAPERWORK!??"

******

Kay and Jay were down on the other side of the main level, where the elevator shafts were.

"Alright Slick," Kay said placidly, "the water should stop just below these doors, but it's rising quickly so be careful when you open them."

Jay mumbled something about always being in the line of danger while everyone else got to watch from a sage distance before he pressed the button and the doors slid open. The elevator were no longer running up and down but had stopped above the main level to keep the rest of HQ from flooding. The doors however, still opened as an emergency procedure.

When the elevator binged Jay took a step cautiously to the edge as Kay powered up his weapon. "It's too dark to make anything out!" Jay called from the edge of the shaft.

"Something's in there Slick, we both heard it get lowered down." Kay replied, strolling over to the shaft and looking down into the murky water that stopped just below their feet and continued rising.

Kay walked back down the hall a little ways and opened the communicator, after a few minutes of babbling with the Twins while Jay watched the water rise and start to spill out into the hall, he turned around, "Twins say that the water pipes in the lower level and a few on the main level have busted. Sounds like someone or something is trying to flood the place and it's up to us to find out why."

Jay turned and followed his partner down the hall, the water was splashing around their ankles and finally was knee deep by the time they reached the end of the hall. "Man, we're gonna be up to ears in salt water before morning!"

"How do you know it's salt water?" Kay asked.

"The smell." Jay replied, "I keep expecting a seagull to swoop down over my head!" 

Kay had his back to the direction they had just come from as the water reached their waists. Jay had turned to face his partner while they talked and saw something swimming towards them.

"Uh---Kay."

Kay was running a scanner over some of the walls, checking for where breaks in the pipelines were, "Not now Slick, I've gotta find the source of the pressure build up."

The thing became clearer, it was straight, two and a half feet tall, sticking out of the water, and heading straight for Kay!

"K-Kay!" Jay pointed behind his partner who refused to be distracted from his work.

The gray dorsal fin came at Kay faster now, it was sure making time racing down that long hall. For a moment, Jay couldn't find his voice.

"Does anything about all this seem strange to you?" Kay asked absently as he continued scanning the pipes overhead.

Jay nodded, swallowing hard, for lack of a better idea…he started humming the theme from Jaws. "Dun-uh, dun-uh dun-uh dun-uh…" 

"Very funny Slick." Kay couldn't believe that Jay was trying to scare him. Val was right he'd never grow up.

The shark was only a few yards away now, "DUN-UN! DUN-UH DUN-UH DUN-UH!!!!"

Jay was getting a lot louder now, just like in the movie. Finally Kay gave up with a sigh, "Alright Jay, what is it?!"

Jay pointed behind Kay just as the fin disappeared beneath the water's surface.

"I don't see anything, what a surprise." he glared at Jay. "Slick, get behind me and quit playing jokes. I've got to get over there and check out those pipes."

Jay shook his head.

"Now Slick!"

"Nuh-uh!"

Kay was getting fed up with this, he turned around and gestured towards the hall, "Slick! This is a building, sharks don't swim around in hallways! Now quit being such a rookie and get back there! There are no sharks in the h-"

Before Kay could finish his lecture a Great White sprang up and made a lunge for his hand. Kay jerked it away with a look of pure shock. Jay grabbed Kay's collar and tugged him back down the hall, towards the main floor. "We've gotta get outta here!" he cried.

******

Meanwhile, back in Zed's office, Delia was still trying to get Zed to turn around.

"Big fish, REALLY BIG fish!" she shouted, holding her arms out wide to illustrate her point.

"I'm losing my patience with you," Zed warned.

R's eyes got wide as he caught sight of what Delia was rambling about. "She's not kidding Sir."

"Not you too?!" Zed yelled, "How many people are in on this?!"

Suddenly Agent Kay came running in with a screaming Jay behind him, "SHARK!" 

"AGENT KAY---I'M IN NO MOOD FOR GROUP PRATICAL JOKES!"

There was a loud commotion outside Zed's office as crowd of agents and aliens tore down the hall.

A wave of water followed them and the Worms sailed by on little surfboards. One was holding a coffee pot above his head. "Surf Java!"

Another Worm was paddling against the current. "Wait! We forgot the cream!"

A small wave broke and the Worms wiped out. "Cowabunga dude!" 

"Don't spill the coffee!"

Zed shook his head and called after them as they were swept by, "You four whine any more about the lost coffee, and we'll have a fishing trip--- I still have a fishing reel in my office!"

That threat made, he picked up the phone with a sigh, "Can you send a janitor up here with a floor buffer?" then hung up calmly.

That taken care of, he turned to Delia, "AGENT DELIA---WHAT HAVE YOU DONE NOW?!"

"WASN'T ME ZED---HONEST!" Delia protested.

"I'd believe that as much as I'd believe that there was a SHARK IN THE BUILDING!" he shouted, eyeing Kay.

Suddenly, a shark tore by, close enough for Zed to see. Delia folded her arms and looked out the window, "Told ya so."

Zed shook his head and turned to Kay, "Care to explain this?"

******

Down the hall Zeeltor was having the time of his life exploring the HQ building which was now mostly underwater. "Hmm, I wonder if any aquatic life was brought in with this sudden flood?" he pondered to himself.

Yazmine had been atop a floating table screaming at him for the last fifteen minutes to get out of the water. With a groan she got off the table and waded in after him. She got closer and the water was nearly over her head, "ZeeltooOOoOOoRRrrrRRR!!" her voice got muffled when the water washed over her head.  


The delighted scientist didn't hear her as he continued looking through the vast flooded regions of HQ.

Something else was in the water though. Something with its cold, unfeeling eyes on him!

Zeeltor turned to face the creature, "Hmmmm that looks to be of the---- wait a minute--- SHARK!"

Yazmine heard this and saw the thrashing of the tiger shark's tail as it swam towards Zeeltor. "Oh my gosh, Zeeltor!"

Yanei was right behind her and noticed the creature too, "It's no use Dr. Yazmine. He doesn't stand a chance!"

Regardless of what Yanei thought Zeeltor wasn't about to go down without a fight. "Oh dear!" he exclaimed and swam towards the other end of the hall, where Yazmine and Yanei were standing.

Yanei's eyes grew large, "Swim for it!" she cried.

"I can't swim!" Yazmine shouted back. 

She had no choice but to kick her way through the flooded hall, pushing furniture and paperwork aside. Fortunately, Zeeltor was right behind her. Unfortunately, so was the shark!

******

Upstairs Zed was trying to get a handle on the situation. Delia, R, Kay, and Jay were standing before him along with at least twenty-four other agents that had somehow managed to jam themselves and six aliens into his office. 

"We need to send someone to go check the base floor…" said Zed. He looked at the most annoying members of the group and knew he couldn't trust the worms to do more than hunt for coffee. He looked at Agent Delia. "You--- go." he said. 

She gave a shocked look. "ME? Oooh no, Zed! I've ruined four pairs of shoes today and I'm not about to make it 5!"

Zed pointed to the door.

Delia frantically looked around for something/someone to get her out of this. She spotted Elle on the main floor, she was sitting atop a customs counter with X as they lights began to flicker. "I saw that movie--- the young blonde chick died first. Elle should be safe."  


"NOW!"  


"WELL if you're gonna be that way about it. Don't complain next time I ask for more money to go shopping!"

With a grunt she left Zed's office, R following close behind. The water was up to her knees, "And now my pants are soaked---AGAIN!" she grumbled.

"This is so cool," R muttered, looking around, "Wonder if we'll run into any of those sh-"

"DON'T EVEN SAY IT!" Delia snapped.

R laughed. "Hey look, it's Elle and my cousin!"

He waved to them as they approached. If they were a pain to each other when they dry, they where intolerable to each other when they were wet!

"What's going on?" Elle asked, "Where the heck did all this water come from?"

"Evidently," Delia sighed, recalling the explanations she and Kay had given Zed, "it came from all over the place!"

"What are you doing out here?!" X asked R, he knew his mother would chew him out if anything happened to her little nephew.

"Delia and I have to search the base floor." he explained.

'Great…' X thought. He could just see his cousin drowning or getting eaten by one of those sharks that he'd seen swim by a few minutes ago. His aunt would never forgive him, he'd have to go along and keep R safe.

"C'mon," X said, grabbing Elle by the arm and dragging her off with R and Delia.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Elle demanded, jerking her arm away.

"We've got to go with R and Delia or my entire family will hold me responsible for his death!"

"And why should I come along and help you?!"

"Don't you want to keep an eye on your little clone?" he asked Elle with a sneer, gesturing ahead at Delia.

"Hey! Watch it Spock!" she shouted, R laughed.

The water rose above Delia's head as she drew closer to the lab. "MY HAIR! THATS IT! I DON'T CARE! I QUIT! GIMME THAT NEURALYZER!!?"

X gladly handed her his neuralyzer, Elle slapped him in the back of the head. "Just granting her wish," X snickered.

Delia walked faster, intent on getting away from that annoying pain in the neck. Suddenly, she bumped into something blue and weird looking. "AHHH! BLUE LAGOON MONSTER!"

"Really? Where?!" A familiar voice bubbled as Zeeltor stuck his entire head out of the water.

"AHHH!!!" Delia screamed and shoved him under. "Don't ever do that again!"

Zeeltor came back up spitting and sputtering. "Can I help it if you overreact Agent Delia?"

Delia groaned as X laughed his head off. Elle thought about slapping him again, but it probably wouldn't do any good.

"My hair is a mess!" she complained, "I'll never be able to fix this!" 

R shook his head, if only she cared as much about him as she did her hair.

Yazmine and Yanei surfaced behind Zeeltor. Yanei had had to haul Yazmine most of the way. "That's it!" Yazmine choked, "I'm learning how to swim!"

"Might be wise with things underwater." Zeeltor chuckled. Delia was preoccupied with her soaked hair.

"I see nothing funny about all this." Yanei gasped for air, "We were just chased by a shark."

"Well, where's the shark now?" Elle asked, giving Yazmine a concerned glance.

"RIGHT BEHIND US!" Yanei shrieked when she turned around and spotted the dorsal fin.

"AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!"

In a panicky flurry of splashing and crashing against walls the agents and aliens turned and made a run/swim for Zed's office.

They barely made it to the stairs when Delia tripped, she had just enough time to yell "R!" before she fell into the water.

"Delia!" he shouted, diving in after the little human.

"R!" X screamed, "Are you crazy?! Get out of the water!"

R ignored his cousin and swam over to Delia, who was a foot away from the shark's opened mouth.

"They're not going to make it!" Yazmine shrieked.

The shark lounged for the two agents but was unable to reach them. Something had a hold of it's tail.

"Huh?!" R and Delia gasped simultaneously.

"X!" Elle shouted.

X couldn't believe what he was doing. Grabbing a SHARK by the tail?! He must have lost his mind. Or maybe he really feared his mother and her sister's wrath that much!

"Swim for the stairwell!" he shouted to the two petrified agents.

R nodded and he and Delia swam towards Zeeltor, Yanei, and Yazmine. Where was Elle?

'Now what?!' X scolded himself, the shark turned and rammed its tail against the wall. X was knocked off and fell back into the water. The shark charged him.

X opened his eyes, the salt water stung but he could still make out a figure behind the shark. It swam with alarming speed towards the creature and grabbed its fin. It went into a death roll, but the figure flipped herself onto its back. Her movements were graceful, she was fast and skilled. Suddenly, X noticed something about the woman that made his heart jump to his throat. It was ELLE!

Elle resurfaced on the shark's back as it thrashed around, unable to shake her off.

"What is she doing?" Delia cried.

"It's alright," Yazmine assured her with a sigh, "she's a professional."

"Kids, don't try this at home," Elle laughed nervously as she yanked back on the shark's fin. It did another death roll and she motioned for X to swim away while she was under the water.

X obeyed, although he was scared to death. What was Elle thinking?!

"Looks like an annoying little human just saved your green skin!" Delia taunted him as he staggered up the stairs. 

Elle looked over her shoulder and noticed that X was to safety. She slowly stood on the shark's back and dove into the water, the second she hit it, she swam like crazy for the stairs.

X grabbed her arms and jerked her out of the water.

"Now let's get the heck outta here!" Delia screamed. The others agreed and they all turned and fled up the stairs.

The shark rammed against the steps, it could only swim up halfway before the water became too shallow. That, however, wouldn't be a problem for long…  
________________________________________________________________________


	5. Where Science Went Wrong

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part Five: Where Science Went Wrong

Up in Zed's office things were hectic, even more than usual, Delia had just returned with the other agents and aliens.

"That's it!" he shouted. "Quiet all of you!" He finally managed to get everyone's attention. "Now I want a status report on exactly what levels of HQ were flooded."

U looked down at the list he'd complied, "Well--- water has made it's way into sectors B12-G57."

W took off her wet jacket, rolled it into a tight rope, and smacked U with it. "OW!"

"And the lab's been flooded too." Yazmine added. "It seems everything's been destroyed."

"The lab? Destroyed?" Jay spun around. "YES!" he quietly said. 

He turned back towards the scientists and cleared his throat "Uh I mean... that's a shame-- all that work"

Zeeltor surveyed the damage down on the main floor with a cheery smile and shook his head. "All that damage done--- oh well! I'll jut have to rebuild everything!" he said with more joy than sadness for the destruction of what was in the lab.

"At least we don't have to worry about any of the paperwork getting wet or destroyed," U sighed, making sure that W didn't have a clear shot at him, "The filing cabinets are air and watertight."

"So what do we do now?" W asked Zed. All of the other agents looked toward him for an answer too.

Zed looked everyone in the room over for a moment, "We need to find out all we can about these sharks and how they got in here. Does anyone know anything helpful about any of this?"

"Yeah," W scoffed at U, "don't open the elevators."

"We heard something being lowered down into one of the elevator shafts," Kay called, "I think it's safe to assume it was the Great White that chased Jay and me down the hall."

Yazmine elbowed Yanei in the ribs and she reluctantly spoke up, "I think I might have the answers as to where these sharks came from and why they're here."

"And who are you?" Zed demanded.

"My name is Sergeant Yanei, I'm here on the behalf of the Hiquip Council…who've hired Dr. Opus to create genetically enhanced sharks to be used as weapons against the Egnorks."

Zed's eyes narrowed on the female, "I thought they'd asked for our assistance in resolving the matter peacefully, are my negotiations agents wasting their time?"

"No," Yanei replied quickly, "recently our planet has suffered massive attacks from our enemy and there's been a great deal of damage, we were desperate for an effective defense."

"I know about these sharks, I've dealt with experimental animals like these twice before." Yazmine spoke up, "Dr. Opus was on the original team of researchers that first created such monsters in an attempt to discover cures for brain disease, cancer, and memory loss."

Zed's attention was now on Yazmine, "If this experiment was such a failure, why was it repeated?"

"It happened fifteen years ago," Yazmine explained, "nine years ago another team of researchers stumbled upon a disc that had information about the experiment during a dive. They decided to 'learn' from the mistakes the first team made and repeat the experiment. They found out the hard way, just like the first team had to, not to tamper with nature. Now Dr. Opus has sold out to the Hiquips and agreed to repeat the experiment again, not for experimental results like the first two teams sought, but for the side effects."

"And what were the side effects?" Zed inquired. Yanei could sense the tension in the room building.

"The research teams enhanced the brains of the sharks through advanced gene therapy in an attempt to enlarge their brains enough to extract sufficient samples without killing them. As a side effect of this ILLEGAL genetic enhancing, the sharks got smarter, and came after the researchers." Yazmine sounded utterly disgusted as she explained, one could tell that she had been there and witnessed it all.

"So how did the researchers defeat these creatures?" Zed asked, hoping for a positive response.

"Not all of them did," Yazmine looked down at the floor. "One researcher, her assistant, a human girl, and a photographer survived, the team was originally made up of eight members. They survived by killing the sharks."

"By what means?"

"Electrocution, gas mane explosions, deadly toxins, and harpoon shots to the brain." Yazmine replied solemnly, "You can imagine how close one would have to get to use many of those methods, and that should explain why half the team didn't survive."

"And the second team?"

"A shark wrangler from Earth was called in around the same time as I was to aid the researchers in their studies. We tried to stop them, but it was too late." Yazmine shook her head. "There were nineteen researchers the second time, nine sharks devoured all but six."

"Then we're dealing with thinking predators, and they can formulate plans and form attack patterns with quick reflexes? Sounds like something you'd see in a horror film." Zed concluded.

"It was like being trapped in a horror film." Yazmine whispered. Yanei felt awful, it was her fault, she'd helped unleash this terror on these people.

"Wait," Kay spoke, "you said that there was a shark wrangler called in from Earth, who was it?"

"The same girl who was with me six years before." Yazmine sighed, she didn't want to disclose who this 'wrangler' was. X already had a pretty good idea of her identity.

"Who was that?" Jay persisted, "They might be able to help us out."

"It was me." Elle said softly.

"You?!" Jay asked, stifling a laugh, "But you were a medical examiner."

"Had to pay my way through school somehow Jay." Elle quietly explained, "Lots of students get summer jobs at beaches and stuff, I'm not the lifeguard type so I became a shark wrangler. Makes sense if you think about it. Yazmine always took me along on most of her studies of predatory creatures so I kind of learned how to handle myself around them."

X was silent, he didn't want to think of Elle swimming with sharks or handling poisonous creatures. He didn't get a kick out of contemplating her old life as a medical examiner but this was worse. Much worse.

Zed broke the silence, "So, Agent Elle, do you think you can help us handle these creatures."

Elle nodded, Yazmine interjected, "Zed! There's only one way to handle these creatures and that's to kill them! And it's entirely too dangerous to send Elle down there alone!"

"Are you volunteering?" he asked.

"I can't swim," Yazmine admitted.

"I'll volunteer," Kay offered.

"Me too," X called, surprising everyone, especially himself.

R looked up at Zed, this was his chance to impress Delia, "I'm a good swimmer Sir, I'll go!"

"Please," a voice from the back laughed, "never send a man to do a woman's job, eh Elle?"

Elle turned with a smile as Agent Val emerged from the crowd, "Besides, I'm not about to let you boys have all the fun."

Jay was quietly staring at Val, he didn't like the idea of her swimming around down there with all those sharks. He knew she was strong, but just in case…"Count me in Z-Man!"

"Great, we've got the volunteers, now how do we stop these things?" Zed announced, the question specifically aimed at Yazmine.

She reached inside her lab coat and pulled out a small navy case that she'd taken from the lab before it was evacuated. Opening the case she explained, "This is Utuxyasinic, one of the most lethal and fast acting alien poisons in the universe. Once it enters the bloodstream of the sharks it will almost instantly shut down the metabolic and respiratory systems. They'll die."

"Why do I sense a 'but' coming up?" Val murmured to Jay.

"BUT---" Yazmine continued, holding up one of the poisoned darts, "---as you can see these needle tips aren't very long, and they're not that sharp. The skin of a shark is very thick, if we want to penetrate their bodies and get this into their systems, we're gonna have to manually insert these darts into a softer, more vulnerable part of their bodies."

"And where would that be?" X demanded, not liking where this was going.

"Ideally, it would be their jaws." she replied.

"JAWS?!" Jay shouted.

"Yes jaws, their gums, anywhere inside their mouths!" Yazmine replied sternly, "We need to get close enough to these creatures to make them open their mouths and allow us to insert the darts otherwise the poison won't enter their bloodstreams and won't take effect."

"You expect us to hop into that shark infested water, swim up to a huge shark, and say 'Open wide'?!?" Jay gasped.

"In a word---yes." Yazmine replied hotly, "So you see why I'm so dead set against sending anyone out there."

"Could you refrain from using the word 'dead' right now?" he pleaded, he already regretted volunteering.

"Alright now," Zed called to Yanei, "we need to know how many sharks we're dealing with and any specifics you can give us about them."

"There are five sharks, all around 9,000 pounds each and ranging from thirty-five to forty-eight feet in length." she replied, "There's a Great White, a Tiger shark, a blue shark, a bull shark, and a hammerhead."

"Why not make them all of one species?" Val inquired.

"It was one of the 'improvements' the second team made. They used sharks of several different species instead of the same species thinking that maybe it would prevent them from becoming synchronized and hunting in a pack. It wasn't very successful." Yazmine responded, recalling the horror she'd faced when the sharks gained up on the researchers and hunted them down, one by one.

"I think that's about all we need to know about these things for now," Zed concluded, "It's time to go down there and reclaim our headquarters!"

Turning and facing the two agents nearest to him he issued instructions, "Agent U, Agent W, while the volunteers are out shark hunting I want you two to find a way up to the roof and bring in the spineless madman responsible for this mess."

U and W looked at each other and reluctantly nodded to Zed.

"Zeeltor, are there any more of those wetsuits in your lab?"

"Oh yes indeedy!" Zeeltor replied.

"Good, I'm going to need to send you and the volunteers down there to retrieve them, once you each have one on I want you to go after those sharks and show 'em that they've bit off more than they can chew!"

"Yes Sir!" he turned to the volunteers, "Shall we?"

Yazmine and Yanei started towards the door, "Where are you two going?" Zed asked.

Yazmine turned and sighed, "These volunteers are going to need all the help they can get if they're going to make it out of this alive. I know how to handle these creatures, that makes it my responsibility to help the volunteers."

"But you said you can't swim," he reminded her.

"The water's not that deep on the main floor yet, hopefully I'll learn before we reach the base level."

"But that's just a short walk down the stairs?!" Jay exclaimed.

Zipping the wetsuit up all the way to the nape of her neck she turned to him, "I'm a fast learner."

"And why are you going?" Zed asked Yanei, still not fully sure whether she was trustworthy.

"This is my mess Zed," she answered, "I should've alerted you to the Council's defense plans, one of those sharks killed a girl in the tank tonight, I won't stand by and let someone else die."

With that the volunteers and aliens left the office and headed down the flooded hallway towards the lab. Agents W and U trailing behind, looking around in a paranoid way for whatever could be swimming under the surface of the murky salt water.

________________________________________________________________________


	6. Submerged in Terror!

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 6: Submerged in Terror!

Eerie noises filled the winding corridors as the MIB snaked their way down towards the lab. One might think that it was the thought of 9,000 pound sharks swimming around in the water that scared them, or perhaps the fact that they would soon be up to their necks in murky salt water, but no---none of these things caused even the slightest tremor of fear amongst the brave volunteers. What did scare them though, was the fact that they were being led by that cheerful mad scientist Zeeltor!

Upon approaching the steps Yazmine shied back as well as X, who recalled the tiger shark from before.

"Alrighty, here's where it's important to hold you breath," Zeeltor announced. Turning to Yazmine he noticed that her coloring was awfully pale, "Are you alright? Maybe you should wait for us here."

"I'll stay with her." Jay offered. He looked at Val who seemed ready and willing to dive in, "And maybe Val should stay here too, just in case?"

"Okey dokey," Zeeltor agreed, "so I guess it's off to the lab with the rest of us!"

Kay, Elle, X, and Yanei followed him into the water after drawing in a deep breath. R was almost ready to dive in when something tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around a little shakily, expecting a shark but coming face to face with…

"HI PARTNER!"

"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

…Agent Delia.

"What on Earth?" Yazmine spun around and was knocked over by R who came stumbling backwards.

SPLASH!

"What are you doing here?" Jay asked as Delia snickered, "You almost got ate the last time."

"I know, but I'd rather risk becoming seafood than stand in that jammed office another minute with all those sweaty agents. Besides-"

R got to his feet and helped Yazmine up, Delia slapped his back heartily, knocking him head first into the water again.

"-couldn't let my partner go trudging around in shark infested waters without me!"

R came back up, spitting out the salty water while Jay laughed. Yazmine was not amused, "Careful agents, too much splashing will attract the sharks."

Jay gulped and Val sighed, "Don't know why I let myself get talked into staying up here anyways. With my luck, we probably won't see hide nor hair of a dorsal fin."

"Good," Jay muttered and crept closer to her.

"So, ya going for a swim?" Delia inquired once her partner had staggered to his feet again. 

"Uh---maybe." R didn't want Delia going, if she got killed he'd never forgive himself!

"Cool, I guess that means I'm going too." 

"Um, wouldn't you rather stay here with Yazmine and-"

"Nope," She had no desire to be around when Val got bored and started pounding Jay for making her miss all the fun. Delia waked over to the stairwell and dove under, "Last one to the lab's a rotten Tugloosac!"

"Delia!" R quickly swam after her. 

In all the excitement none of the volunteers were facing the large terror that was slowly swimming down the hall.

******

In the lab the only place to surface for air was way up at the ceiling where the electrical wires and light fixtures were dangling. It wasn't a short swim for anyone. But humans need air and so do most aliens so that was the first place the volunteers went when they finally reached the lab.

"Remind me to find the architect for this building and HURT HIM!" Elle coughed once she surfaced after X and Zeeltor.

"Leave it to a human to put a lab entrance WAY down at the other end of a hall," X murmured.

Zeeltor didn't seem a bit phased by any of this, "Got your lungs all filled up with air yet agents? Make sure they're filled up tippy top before you dive under again, never know when you'll get your next breath…if you ever do that is."

The cheerful laugh that followed this seriously disturbed Elle and X, they would've backed away a bit but Kay and Yanei surfaced, gasping for air.

"Ready to get the wetsuits now?" Zeeltor asked Kay after he'd had a moment to catch his breath.

"Let's go." he agreed and ducked back down beneath the water.

Yanei followed, then X. Elle stayed where she was. Something over in the shadows just a few yards away had moved.

She waited patiently and her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the tip of a dorsal fin slowly raise out of the water. Then she noticed something, it was headed straight for her! "Oh no."

The creature drew nearer, Elle assumed the position for flipping herself onto its back. Just before the creature got to her she noticed something else, something strange. It's mouth wasn't open, that meant, she wasn't it's target!

The shark brushed past her and it's fin disappeared beneath the water.

"NO!" Elle ducked under, she had to stop that shark before it was too late!

Under the water Zeeltor had just finished handing out the wetsuits and Kay and X had worked their way into theirs. X looked up and noticed something approaching from behind Kay at an incredibly fast rate. He doubted Elle could swim that fast, and he knew that she wasn't that large. "SHARK!" his bubbled cry came.

Kay turned, dart in hand, the giant blue shark had it's jaws spread wide open and prepared to chomp down on his MIB feast. Kay held the dart out and jabbed it's upper jaw with the dart. It stuck there and the poison was visibly leaking out into it's bloodstream. One problem, the shark was still coming at Kay!

X grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back, he needed air! That scream had taken all of his supply.

Things went blurry and he knew he couldn't hold his breath any longer. Just as his eyes drifted shut and a few tiny air bubbles escaped his lips a mask was pulled down over his face from behind. X's eyes fluttered open, he looked back, "Zeeltor?"

Zeeltor was already wearing his mask and gave the revived agent a hearty thumbs up.

X shook his head and turned back to Kay, whose shoulders he was still clutching tightly. The shark had picked a new target---Yanei.

The alien swam around the lab, desperately trying to escape the killer fish. She finally found herself in a corner. Elle spotted the shark and grabbed hold of it's dorsal fin. Instead of going into a death role, the shark turned and rammed it's back against the wall. Yanei watched helplessly as Elle was banged between the wall and the shark.

Her only hope was for that poison to kick in and fast!

Luckily the poison took effect, the shark grew dazed and then---to everyone's horror---started to violently thrash around. Elle was receiving blows to her left side that were sure to have shattered the fragile human's bones. After about ten seconds, that felt like ten minutes, the shark grew limp and turned over, belly side up.

X swam over to Elle as she drifted, lifelessly down into the shadows. Kay and Zeeltor could only watch. 

Delia and R swam into the lab and up towards the ceiling.

"Whoa! What a swim!" Delia gasped.

R surfaced a little ways away and screamed. "AAAAHHH!!!!! What the heck?!"

"Huh?" Delia turned to see what her partner had found to yell about now and screamed when she saw the belly of a shark sticking up out of the water.

"It's dead." Zeeltor assured them when he surfaced. "And I'm afraid that they may be the case with Agent Elle."

Delia and R exchanged shocked looks, "What?!" they asked in unison.

"Agent Elle suffered some severe bruising down there when the blue shark's systems ceased to function." Zeeltor explained, a little less cheerily than usual.

Down below Kay and Yanei were staring into the shadows. Kay looked a little shaken, for once. Yanei narrowed her eyes as something came into view. "There they are!" she spoke into her mask, equipped with a radio for communications.

X swam upwards past the two volunteers and surfaced with Elle in his arms.

"ELLE!" Delia shouted, R held her back, it was best to give the little human some room now.

"She's not breathing!" X exclaimed in a panicky tone, through his mask.

"You'll have to give her CPR," Zeeltor responded.

"You mean you want me to put my lips on a humans?!" X gasped.

"Well-" Zeeltor sighed, swimming a bit closer, "I suppose I could do it."

X's eyes grew wide. "NO! She's MY partner so I'll do it!"

His voice had almost a threatening tone as he spoke to Zeeltor, R wanted to laugh but knew this wasn't the time or the place. He'd never seen his cousin so protective of anyone.

X tilted Elle's head back a bit, leaning her against a metal rafter, he really wished he didn't have to do this with his cousin and Elle's demon clone watching. This was going to be SO embarrassing!

Reluctantly he brought his lips to hers. Pinching her nose shut and holding her against the rafter with his free hand. Leaning in, he blew gently into her mouth.

"You'll have to blow a bit harder than that Agent X." Zeeltor instructed.

"Fine," X muttered, his lips still pressed firmly against Elle's, he didn't want to over do it and kill his own partner. He continued to grumble a bit before blowing in, harder but not too hard, into Elle's mouth.

This caused her chest to rise, X looked sideways at Zeeltor, he seemed pleased. Good, that meant that he was doing this right. Taking his lips off Elle's he brought both his hands to her chest, having to lean his body firmly against hers to keep her from sinking into the water.

Kay and Yanei had surfaced and were watching the procedure. Kay in awe of how X could ridicule Elle every second of the day and then turn around and press his lips that tightly against hers, not to mention the way he was holding her against the rafter, now there was a position he was sure Elle didn't want to wake up to!

After a few more breaths and compressions Elle's eyes slide open and she looked up dazedly at her partner. Her vision was blurred and she couldn't make out anything but a big green blob at first. Something warm was pressed against her lips…

The image before her finally became clearer and her beady eyes tripled in size. "X?!!" she muttered through his lips.

He felt her breath against his face and leaned back quickly, "Elle?! You're okay!"

"What do you think you're doing?!" she snapped, "Don't ever kiss me---" she looked around upon hearing the sound of sniggering all around, "---in front of everyone?!"

Delia smiled and cracked a joke, "Talk about being desperate for a man!"

Elle's face reddened. 

"X was just giving you CPR Elle," Kay explained, it'd be a shame to see Elle kill X over something that wasn't human bashing or prank related, "that shark gave you a serious beating down there."

Elle pushed herself away from X and started to swim past the dead shark, "Stupid fish, let's get back up to Yazmine and the other's before another one of these sharks shows up and- OOOWWW!!!!!" she grabbed the left side of her chest and latched onto a wire in pain. 

X swam over to her and held her up, "Oh dear," Zeeltor muttered, "I'm afraid that you might have some broken ribs. No surprise with the licking you took from that shark. We'd better get you back up to Zed's office."

"What? No!" Elle objected, her arms around X's neck for support, "I'm the shark wrangler that helped bring these things down the first time, remember? I need to stay down here and help you take 'em out!"

"I'm afraid I have to agree with Zeeltor on this one Elle," Kay insisted, "Can't have you swimming around down here with broken ribs, it's just too risky."

"But-" Elle started to argue.

"Here," Kay handed X a wetsuit for Elle and another dart, "take this and head back for Zed's office with Elle."

"HEY!" Elle didn't like being treated like she wasn't even there.

"Come on Little Ears, deep breath." X chuckled, ignoring Elle's protests and allowing her only a moment to take a breath before submerging her in the water.

Kay turned to the others. "Now that we've all got our suits we'll split up and hunt down those sharks."

"Alright," R exclaimed, "one down, four to go!"

Delia rolled her eyes, "What say we use Mr. Heroics here for live bait?"

"Zeeltor and Yazmine can check the sectors on the far side of the main level while Yanei and Val cover the side near the main floor. R and Delia can swim over to the far side of this base level and check the elevator shafts while I go get Slick and make sure there aren't any more sharks lurking around this area." Kay instructed. The others nodded and dove under. The plan was in motion…but so were the sharks!

******

X swam for the stairwell, not an easy feat with Elle struggling against him the whole way, he wasn't a strong enough swimmer to keep this up much longer. He sighed with relief when he spotted the backup lights for the stairwell.

He surfaced with Elle, both gasping for breath. After a moment though, they both grew silent. Something was wrong, where were the others?! Elle's scream got X's attention. "Not in my ear!" he hissed at her. 

Elle glared at him then pointed to the bloody water surrounding them. With wide and terror filled eyes both agents began to cry out for the volunteers that they now regretted leaving behind…

________________________________________________________________________


	7. A Trail of Blood

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 7: A Trail of Blood

Zeeltor, Yanei, and Kay sprang up from the stairwell entrance a few minutes after Elle and X. 

"Where is everyone?" Yanei asked no one in particular.

"Looks like there might have been a shark attack." Kay noted, observing the bloody water.

"Fascinating!" Zeeltor exclaimed, taking a bit of the water into a small tube and holding it up to the flickering backup lights. "Hmm…this could be human blood but there's really no way I can say for sure right now until I run some tests."

"Well I think you're as mad as Dr. Opus himself!" Yanei hissed.

"Mad isn't the problem with Zeeltor," Kay replied, "With him it's cheeriness."

"I say we stay together and search for any survivors," Yanei said sternly, "that's our best chance with these creatures swimming around."

"Agreed." Kay nodded, patting Zeeltor on the shoulder to get his attention.

"Ah yes." Zeeltor stared down at the water, "the trail of blood seems to lead this way. Towards the shafts."

"Fine." Yanei turned and headed off in the direction that Zeeltor was referring to. She stopped abruptly when something large and white sprang up in front of her. "AAHHH!!!"

"Calm down Sergeant Yanei," Zeeltor chuckled. "I believe this shark is dead."

"What kind is it?" Kay asked absently as he stared down at the monster.

"Well, the square snout on the front indicates that this shark was what's commonly known as a bull shark, very rare for these waters." Zeeltor chuckled at his own joke.

Yanei scoffed and turned towards him, "You know your lab assistant probably met up with this beast while you weren't here! Dr. Yazmine may very well be in the belly of that animal right now!"

"Hmm, I suppose the best way to find out if that were true would be to make an incision right about here on the shark and explore it's stomach." Zeeltor purposed. "It's digestive system is fairly slow, whatever---or whoever, it's eaten recently is almost sure to be in there."

"I can't believe this!" Yanei shouted, her hands flailing in the air.

"Take it easy Sergeant Yanei." Kay insisted calmly.

"I will not!" she shrieked. "This mad man has absolutely no regard for the life of other beings! He acts as if this were all one big science expedition and we're just the bait to bring the specimen to him!"

"I assure you that's not what I meant by-"

"That's exactly what you meant!" Yanei snapped, "For all you care us and every other life form in this building could wind up as meals for those killers and all you'd be concerned about is obtaining samples for testing!"

"This isn't getting us anywhere." Kay informed them.

"But Agent Kay," Zeeltor continued, "Sergeant Yanei is completely mistaken about my feelings towards the value of life of these agents. I certainly don't delight in knowing that any of them could have been consumed by this animal. I merely wanted to confirm as to whether or not this creature had attacked and/or eaten any of them."

"We don't have time to do an autopsy on that fish right now," Kay said plainly, "if there were any survivors then they're probably still down this hall."

"I'm almost certain that there were survivors," Zeeltor happily explained, "You'll note the dart lodged into the shark's lower jaw towards the rim of his mouth right here." Zeeltor lifted the edge of the sharks mouth open to show Kay the dart. "The poison would've kicked in before the shark could've consumed more than one, maybe two of the volunteers."

"This sickens me." Yanei exclaimed and tore off down the hall.

"Better go after her." Kay muttered.

"Right behind you Agent Kay!" Zeeltor chuckled. Something about that chuckle gave even Kay the creeps.

******

"Yazmine?! Jay?! Val?!" Elle's cries went unanswered as she waded down the hall. What on Earth had happened to them? Three people disappearing like that sent chills down her spine.

"AGENT VAL?! Small Ears?!" X called out to the two humans.

"Jay's name isn't Small Ears, X." Elle scoffed, "I doubt he'll answer to that.

"Over here!" Jay's voice rang out.

"See." X grinned at Elle.

"Well, this is JAY we're talking about." she reminded him.

Elle and X pushed their way into the large office by the elevator shafts. They had to maneuver past floating furniture and filing cabinets before they finally spotted Yazmine, Val, and Jay sitting atop a huge floating desk on the other side of the room.

"Why didn't you wait for us at the stairwell?!" X demanded.

"We kinda ran into a little problem." Val sneered.

"LITTLE?!' Jay exclaimed, "We got attack by a bull shark!"

"What happened to your leg?!" Elle asked Yazmine as she approached her.

"It's nothing." Yazmine sighed, "The thing crept up and latched onto my leg. I got pulled under but Val here gave the thing a blow to the head and it let go before it had a chance to bite all the way through."

"Thing nearly made a meal outta Val then." Jay said hysterically, "Slammed her against the wall."

"They seem to be doing that a lot." X muttered, his arm around Elle's waist.

Jay noticed their odd position then and inquired slyly, "And what have you two been up to?"

Their faces reddened and Elle explained in a low tone. "I got rammed against a wall in the lab by a blue shark. It's dead now but I suffered a few broken ribs."

Yazmine went into her doctor mood now, examining Elle's ribs and gently easing her onto the desk. "I'm afraid you've got two broken ribs Elle, I suggest you don't do any unnecessary swimming."

Yazmine cringed a bit, having put weight on her hurt leg hadn't been the smartest thing to do. X saw Yazmine's pained expression and lifted her up beside Elle before climbing onto a file cabinet. "So what now?"

"We wait for the others to find us." Val replied, "We used up Yazmine's dart when she stabbed that shark and with only two darts left and three sharks to go it's doubtful that we'd make it to Zed's office without a few causalities resulting."

"Actually," X corrected her holding out two more darts, "we've got enough darts to take out those sharks."

"Alright!" Jay exclaimed, "And a spare in case we mess up!"

Everyone in the room eyed him, "What?"

"You're hopeless," Val groaned and slid off the desk, "If Yazmine hadn't stabbed the dart into that thing from behind I'd have been fish food and you'd be it's desert."

"Hey," Jay protested, "I was just keeping out of the way." Truthfully, seeing that shark slam Val into the wall had made frozen him with fear, but he wasn't going to let her know that.

"Uh huh." Val turned and leapt off the desk. "I'm gonna step out into the hall and see if I can spot the others."

"Be careful!" Yazmine cautioned.

  
"I always am." Val laughed, turning around but not fast enough to notice the door to the office eased open by some unseen force.

******

"I don't see anything!" W complained as she and U crept over the roof of the HQ building.

"Well keep looking, we've got our mission and we can't go back until we've spotted the aliens responsible for flooding the building." U replied.

"I almost wish we'd been attacked by one of those sharks." W muttered, "At least then I wouldn't have had to listen to you go on about regulations anymore."

"At least I don't play the radio at the highest volume level!" U snapped.

"It goes that high for a reason U!"

"MIB agents should be more concerned with their assignments." U mumbled.

"WELL IT'S NOT MY FAULT THAT THEY SHAFTS AND VENTS GOT SEALED!" a male's voice screamed from the other side of the roof.

U and w crept up to the two bickering aliens, watching them from behind some crates.

"If you had just found a way to get those pumps down into the shafts faster!" the other alien, Dr. Opus exclaimed.

"Hey don't blame me! I'm not the genius here, Einstein!" the officer insisted.

"No matter," Dr. Opus chuckled, rubbing his hands together, "the Men in Black are fish food by now."

"Wrong Frankenstein!" W shouted, leaping out from behind one of the crates and aiming her icer at the two dumbstruck aliens.

"I KNEW this would happen!" the officer groaned.

"Freeze, you are being taken into custody for the illegal flooding of MIB HQ, unlawful genetic tampering of sharks, the attempted murder of several MIB agents and aliens, and for the murder of a human female civilian!"

Dr. Opus and the guard had their hands raised high, "We give up."

"I don't think that was the order." W chuckled, pulling the trigger on her icer.

Both aliens gave a look of surprise as they were transformed into ice sculptures, "My partner said 'freeze'." she grinned. "Pretty cool huh?" she turned to U only to find him on his communicator with Zed.

"We've got the situation under control Sir." U said in what he hoped was a casual tone that someone like Agent Kay would use.

"Why don't I just staple your lips to Zed's butt right now and get it over with?!" W sneered.

"WHAT WAS THAT, AGENT W?!?" Zed's voice shouted from the communicator.

"Sorry Sir." W called. "Just tired of having a partner obsessed with the handbook. He needs to learn that you can't learn to be an MIB agent from a book. Skills like yours are purely instinct and years of trained professional know-how!"

"Well---that's true," Zed admitted, a little flattered. "U, you could learn a lot from that partner of yours. She's got a lot less seniority than you yet she seems to have this MIB field agent wrap down better. I'll send a containment crew up there as soon as Kay let's me know the sharks have been taken care of."

"You little kiss up!" U shouted to W after Zed had closed the line.

W pulled down her eyelid and stuck her tongue out at U. "See how annoying it is?!"

******

R and Delia made their way down the hall towards the elevator shafts, they sincerely hoped the air in their tanks was enough to last them while they were down there looking for sharks.

"I don't see anything yet," Delia called.

"Isn't that a good thing?" R asked nervously.

"Aw, getting cold flippers?" Delia teased.

"Who me? Never. I'm fearless." R replied, trying to sound bold instead of corny.

"I wonder what ever happened to that tiger shark?" Delia continued teasing him. "I think it had a taste for you."

"H-hey, there were more sharks than that set loose in here. We probably won't even run into it." R answered, trying to convince himself not to be afraid. "There was a Great White, a blue shark, a---HAMMERHEAD!"

"Geez R, not so loud! This radio's right in my ear you know!"

"No!" R grabbed her arms and pointed her towards what he saw coming at them, "A HAMMERHEAD!"

"Gee I'd love to stick around and chat but I've gotta swim for my pathetic life now!" Delia turned and swam past R towards the office that U and W had been working in earlier. R followed and slammed the door shut behind him.

He turned when he felt something run into the door. "I think we're safe."

"I'm getting you a dictionary for Christmas!" Delia squealed.

Suddenly there was another blow to the door. The metal bending and being knocked away from the hedges.

"It's gonna burst in!" Delia exclaimed.

"The air vent!" R shouted, pointing to the large grate on the wall behind the cabinets.

"We aren't waiting on me!" Delia yelled, scrambling past the floating folders that had been left on the table when U and W had went to elevator.

The shark rammed against the door again. Bursting through and swimming straight for R who was halfway into the vent.

He pulled his foot through just as the shark rammed it's head against the opening.

"Boy are you lucky that was a hammerhead," Delia snickered.

"Yeah," R panted, "that was close, too close."

________________________________________________________________________


	8. Val's Brush With Death

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 8: Val's Brush With Death

Agent Val waded over to the door and reached for the handle. Nothing irritated her more than sitting around and doing nothing while other people were out in the middle of all the action. She'd have no reason to complain today…

The tiger shark lunged up at her from the water causing her to scream and fall backwards. "VAL!" Jay shouted, without thinking he had leapt into the water and swam for the agent who'd been caught off guard and was now at the mercy of the nine ton killing machine.

"Has he lost his mind?" Elle asked.

"Probably," X muttered, "if he had one to lose."

Jay stroked over to Val who was lying on the floor beneath the shark. She tried to avoid it's teeth but it was obvious that she wouldn't be able to do that for long.

Jay pulled the dart out from the belt of his wetsuit and jabbed it into the shark's open mouth. "Just hold on!" he told her as she slipped on her mask.

"Are you crazy?!" she hissed, "That thing'll kill you!"

"At least you won't be able to call me a coward anymore huh?" he teased as he pushed a shelf between the thrashing shark and Val.

"No, from now on I'll just stick to idiot!"

Elle, X, and Yazmine watched as a small amount of the water above the shark turned red. "They've stabbed it with the dart!" Yazmine announced happily.

Jay and Val surfaced, "YEAH! NOW THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!" Jay crowed as the shark stopped thrashing and turned over on its belly.

"DON'T MESS WITH THE BEST OF THE BEST!" 

Val shook her head but couldn't restrain herself from laughing, "My hero," she smiled, removing her mask and planting a peck on Jay's cheek.

"Don't encourage him." Elle sighed, "He'll never stop gloating now."

"This is really quite an interesting breed of shark." Yazmine muttered, wading over to the dead tiger shark and pulling out a scanner.

Val reached over and shoved her against the fish, "AAHHH!!!

"Don't you dare turn all Zeeltor on us!" she warned.

"Someone mention my name?" a cheery voice came from the doorway.

"AAHHH!" Jay joked.

"Very amusing Agent Jay, sounds like you'd be perfect for testing out my latest experiment. It involves vocal enhancers and-"

"KIDDING ZEELTOR! CAN'T YOU TAKE A JOKE?!" Jay hastily exclaimed.

"I was wondering what happened to you." Yazmine laughed. 

"We were a little preoccupied with a blue shark in the lab, ah, I see Agents Elle and X made it as well!" Zeeltor grinned as Kay and Yanei entered the room.

"Looks like we've got one less shark to worry about," Kay muttered then spotted the tiger sharks light underside sticking up out of the water. "Make that two."

"Three sharks down," Jay mumbled to himself as everyone filed out into the hallway. "That means we've got what? A Great White and a hammerhead to deal with?"

"Seems that way Slick." Kay replied from across the hall.

Suddenly there was a banging noise at the end of the hall. "What now?" Yanei moaned.

Bang!

The large grate at the end of the hall was being pounding on from behind from some unseen force.

"It's coming from the air vent."

Bang!!

"Could a shark fit in there?" Jay asked worriedly.

"I highly doubt it," Yazmine muttered, "But then again, something has to be making that noise…"

BANG!!!

The grate flew off and Agents R and Delia stumbled out into the flooded hall.

SPLASH!

Rapidly they resurfaced and closed the vent, gasping for breath as they ripped off their masks.

"I'm afraid to ask," Val sighed.

"SHARK!" they both yelled.

"Which one?"

"The Hammerhead." R replied.

"Well relax," Zeeltor chuckled, "it's not going to fit through there and we've only got two sharks to deal with now anyways."

"One shark can be enough to wipe out everyone here with how smart it is," Yazmine reminded him.

"Gee thanks for the cheerful thought Doc." Jay jeered.

"You mean that there are three dead sharks now?" Delia asked hopefully.

"Yep." Kay confirmed. A beeping noise came from the belt on his wetsuit and he pulled out his communicator, "Kay here."

"Kay?" Zed's voice came from the device. "How are you and the team of volunteers handling things down there?"

"We've moved up to the main level now and have two more sharks to go."

"Good work." Zed congratulated him, "our boys say that they can dry us out provided that they can get down there and install the new drainage system. That means I need those two sharks turned into sushi ASAP!"

"Understood." Kay nodded, "We just have to locate them first Zed."

"May I make a suggestion then?"

"We're all ears."

Zed turned his communicator to the flooded main floor below where the aliens that had been trapped from the shuttle landing where all climbing on top of desks and equipment trying to escape a hammerhead. "Call it a hunch, but why don't you check the main floor?"

"We're on it." Kay closed the communicator and turned to the volunteers, "Time to wrap up this fishing trip."

******

Screams and swearing in a variety of different languages could be heard as the volunteers drew closer to the main floor. "Sounds like a massacre up ahead." X noted gravely, holding Elle's waist with one arm and pushing floating objects out of the way with the other.

"Guess that means we've found our sharks," Kay muttered.

"Have your darts ready," Yazmine cautioned, "those things could spring out from anywhere."

"How does a 9,000 pound shark hide anyways?" Jay inquired sarcastically.

"Quite easily." Yazmine assured him.

Elle wasn't listening to all the bickering and warnings being issued around her. She had one thought in her mind. The hammerhead could easily be taken care of by the other volunteers, but somewhere up ahead lurked one of the oldest and most deadly predators known to man. An instinct in her knew it was there, the others wouldn't know what hit them. She was the only one who could take down the Great White. She glanced up at X who fortunately wasn't looking down at her. She slipped the dart out from beneath the sleeve of her wetsuit and fingered it like the trigger of a loaded gun. She'd slipped a little something extra into this dart, something worse than the alien poison. 'I'm ready for you…' she thought grimly as she stared out at the panicking aliens and agents that were scrambling on top of anything sticking out of the water to save their lives, '…I'll make sure there isn't enough of your DNA left for there to be a fourth time.'

________________________________________________________________________


	9. The Jaws of Death

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 9: The Jaws Of Death

Zed paced his office, what was taking his agents so long? He had to admit, but only to himself, that he was a bit worried about their safety. Even with Kay on the job, he was only trained to fight aliens, not sharks. Zeeltor accompanying them didn't ease Zed's mind a bit, if anything, it worried him more. Finally Zed sighed with relief as the volunteers cautiously waded out onto the main floor. It puzzled him a bit when he noticed Elle in X's arms. Was she leaning on him for support or---he didn't even want to think about any other reasons she might have for letting him touch her like that.

"There's our fourth shark." Yazmine stated when she spotted the dorsal fin of the hammerhead sticking up out of the somewhat shallow water. "Darts ready? We've got to nail this thing on the first try or whoever it charges is dead meat."

"Do ALL you scientists talk like that?!" Jay shouted, backing off towards the hallway again.

"Not so fast Slick," Kay called, grabbing Jay by the collar and pulling him back into the room.

X took the dart out of his pocket, "Don't worry, I'll head up to Zed's office with Elle and if anything swims up…" he twirled the dart around in his fingers, "…I can handle it."

Elle was lost in her own thoughts, she wasn't worried about the hammerhead, she had bigger fish to fry. 

"There you are!" Agent I screamed from on top of a large floating desk, "In case you haven't noticed, we've got a little problem here!"

"No kidding," Kay nodded, drawing the dart out and wading towards the shark.

"KAY?!" Jay yelled to his partner. Kay may as well have been a zillion light years away. Jay shook his head when his partner continued wading towards the shark. "Dude's gonna get himself eaten."

"Give him some credit Jay," Val scolded, "the man's a professional."

Kay could still hear Val and Jay's conversation, although he almost twenty five feet away from the shark, or where it was last seen…

Zed and the other agents and aliens were watching the dramatic scene from his office. The water was so murky that one couldn't tell if the shadows seen were furniture or something worse. 'Careful Kay,' Zed thought as he gazed at his old friend. Something large and dark was indeed making it's way up to him from beneath the water's surface. In fact, it was about to surface, right behind him, "KAY! WATCH OUT!" Zed shouted, banging his fists against the glass.

Kay noted the noise and turned. The thing approaching him surfaced, water running off it on all sides, Kay let out a slight gasp.

Jay had shut his eyes, Val buried her face into his shoulder. When he didn't hear screaming Jay opened his eyes. "It's luggage." Jay laughed nervously, "Just some extraterrestrial luggage."

Val took her head off Jay's shoulder and tried to hide her reddened face, "You'd think that these tourists would keep up with their stuff," she mumbled, pretending she hadn't turned to Jay for help.

Kay sighed a little but his relief was cut short by sudden screams from a few counters down. "SHARK!" one English speaking alien shrieked as his companion was swallowed, nearly whole, by the large hammerhead.

X cringed at the bloody sight and held his hand over Elle's eyes. "I've seen this kind of carnage before you know?" she shouted with annoyance.

A few of the female aliens wept while the men held them away from the water. Agents stood atop anything sticking outing of the water, panic stricken and without a clue as to how to react.

'Oh for the love of---it's just a shark attack people!' Elle wanted to shout out loud. They couldn't have expected something that horrendous to be pretty! Elle shook her head and turned to Yazmine who also seemed unaffected by what happened. "If everyone doesn't get themselves together that alien won't be the last casualty today!" Yazmine called. This seemed to snap Kay out of his momentary state of shock. He gripped the dart tightly and dove in after the shark.

The agents and aliens watching from above saw a magnificent struggle between man and beast. To be more specific---between Agent Kay and an enormous hammerhead shark.

Kay didn't seem to be fairing well against the creature. It had plenty of furniture and support beams to ram the agent into. It's thrashing made it almost impossible for the poor man to hang onto it's dorsal fin (the way he'd seen Elle do), Kay stabbed at the shark's mouth, missing each time. Jabbing it in the eye once, causing it to sling him off into the water. Kay let out a surprised noise as he was sent flying through the air and splashing down a good thirty feet away. 

"Oh dear," Zeeltor frowned, "I don't think Agent Kay can handle that shark on his own. He really needs assistant. Otherwise---the prognosis isn't good!"

Jay looked around and saw everyone staring at him, "ME?!"

"I've kind of got my hands full!" X grumbled, lifting Elle up slightly.

"He is your partner Agent Jay," Zeeltor smiled.

Val wasn't paying attention, she was looking around, "Where's Yazmine?"

Yanei stared in the direction of the shark (which was rapidly approaching Kay), "She's out of her mind!"

The dorsal fin was barely out of the water, the agents and aliens could see nothing more. Well, Kay could see more, but only because of how close he was. The shark drew closer and opened wide. "KAY!!!" screams came from all around. Kay couldn't focus on those screams now. He had to concentrate, to drown out all the noises around him, if he didn't…well, he was doomed.

The shark's head sprang forward out of the water, Kay was inches away from the jaws of death. He stabbed the shark's jaw with the dart, at least he'd go down with a fight.

Yazmine's claws dug into the shark's fin, it was her chance to maneuver it away from Kay. Her only chance.

"What in the name of Guloptorse does she think she's doing?!" X said aloud to no one in particular.

Elle watched, she knew that Yazmine was an expert, but dealing with sharks and being unable to swim…that worried her. "Hopefully, she's saving Kay."

Yazmine held on tightly, it didn't look good for Kay. The hammerhead had it's bottom teeth caught on his sleeve.

"Who's idea was it for long sleeve suits anyways?" Delia muttered, staring at the scene. R had his arms wrapped around her, just in case the crazy little human tried something insane like rushing in on the struggle.

The shark's thrashing was dying down. Kay's sleeve had been torn off from just above the elbow.

Yazmine finally let go and was thrown into the water.

Kay swam around the shark, intent on saving Yazmine. It's tail whipped around and knocked him hard in the stomach. He was sent sprawling back into a counter. "Ouch!" the other volunteers cringed.

The shark was belly side up by the time R and X waded over to Kay. Elle had been deposited safely on top of a desk where she watched the scene as Kay was reluctantly drug away from the shark and forced back towards herself, Jay, Delia, and Val. Something was off, there were no cheery helpful suggestions from Zeeltor. He seemed a bit devastated as Elle watched him stare at the bloody water. "Zeeltor?" Elle called softly.

He didn't hear her, he was fixated on the spot where Yazmine had been thrown beneath the murky water. Delia had noticed Zeeltor's less than merry expression too. She was puzzled at first, the water wasn't all that deep, surely Yazmine could swim out…then it hit her, four sharks down, one more to go.

"Yazmine?!" R looked up when he heard Delia's frantic cries. Zeeltor was looking down at the water now, a saddened expression on his usually cheery face.

Once he and his cousin had finally hauled Kay to safety they turned and waded back to find Yazmine. "Delia, stay there where it's safe!" R begged her as he turned to leave again.

"How does he know it's safe here?!" Delia griped to herself.

She turned to sulk off to where Elle was lying down and caught a glimpse of Zeeltor out of the corner of her eye. A twinge of sorrow washed over her, he looked---heartbroken. 

Zeeltor stared at his blurry expression in the murky water, why hadn't he gone out to help Yazmine? Why had he let his assistant swim out there and risk her life in the first place, knowing perfectly well that she couldn't swim? Yazmine and Zeeltor hadn't always seen eye to eye on everything, especially in the ethics department, but he still cared about her safety. If only he had it to do all over again, he'd do something different to save her life. If only he could bring his dear assistant back somehow. How would he break it to Blitz? And LUCY?! His lovable little bacteria had certainly taken a liking to the scientist and now---

Right on cue something broke through the surface of the water right in front of Zeeltor, right through his reflection.

All the other volunteers, agents, and aliens leapt back, thinking it was another shark. The Great White! Zeeltor merely stared down in front of his chest in wonder, "YAZMINE!"

Elle smiled as the good doctor through his arms around her. Embracing his assistant and holding her tightly. "It's nice to see you too." Yazmine chuckled after spitting out the last of the water.

"Hey Doc!" Jay exclaimed happily, "You're okay!"

Up in Zed's office there were sighs of relief all around. At least the worse case scenario hadn't occurred.

Or had it?

With all the volunteers distracted there was nothing to stop the gigantic terror lurking just beneath the surface, swimming towards two unsuspecting life forms, perhaps even seeking revenge. Nothing would oppose it, no one could get in it's way…except one blonde human who had witnessed all the carnage before.

________________________________________________________________________


	10. Four Down, One to Go

The Murky Water Syndrome

Part 10: Four Down, One to Go

"Nice entrance," Delia laughed, happy that Zeeltor seemed to be back to his overly perky self again. He'd given her a scare there when he'd drifted off into some kinda alien version of heartbreak city.

Yazmine wiped the water from her eyes, "Almost didn't make it back, swimming isn't as easy as they make it look on television or in the Olympics here on Earth." 

"So you can swim now?" Jay asked.

"Nope," Yazmine laughed, "but I can scramble to the surface after being thrown off by a shark, provided the water is less than five feet deep."

Jay laughed, "It's a start."

Val elbowed him, but not nearly as hard as usual. 

"I'm just glad you're safe," Zeeltor grinned widely.

"Looks like the good doctor has the hots for his assistant," Val murmured to Jay.

"Yeah, guess they'll be doing a little experimenting in the lab once it's dry again." he snickered.

X and R could hear their muttering due to their large ears. R smiled and shook his head, X felt ready to lose his dinner. Then he remembered something…ELLE!

He looked over to the place where he had laid his injured partner down, she wasn't there. For once, X started to panic---and all over Elle. "Where is she?!" he demanded of everyone within earshot.

"Who?" Jay asked stupidly.

"WHO?!" X snapped, "MY PARTNER! AGENT ELLE!"

Jay backed up a step and Val stepped between him and the eccentric alien to prevent a fight that would ultimately result in Jay getting his head bashed in. "Cool it you two, this won't help us find Elle."

"And we've still got another shark to contend with," Yanei reminded them.

The timing couldn't have been better, behind Val and Jay the Great White burst fourth. The two agents screamed and dove under the water.

"SWIM!" R cried.

"I doubt they were gonna jog!" Delia called as she yanked him up onto a counter top.

Beneath the surface Val and Jay quickly pulled on their masks. The Great White lunged for Jay, this was what Val had been waiting for, a chance to shine! With lightening fast reflexes she mimicked a move that she had seen Elle use many times before when dealing with sharks. Grabbing the tail, waiting for the shark to whip around, and then pulling herself on top before it could attack.

Jay was dumbfounded, watching Val try something that crazy made his stomach churn.

Val was holding on for dear life. She couldn't understand why in the world Elle would ever want to do this for a living, sure it was exciting but it was also insane!

"JAY?!" Val shrieked when she didn't see the agent anywhere around, "Get back here and stab this thing!"

It felt like whole minutes were flying by with no sign of Jay. Then Val spotted something that made her heart sink, Jay's dart, just lying there on the flooded main floor. "JAY?!"

Val was scared to death. Had the shark grabbed Jay while she was busy using wrangling tactics? No, there would be blood in the water, wouldn't there? Unless---unless Jay had been swallowed whole. The shark certainly seemed large enough for that.

A flood of conflicting emotions rushed through Val's mind---and heart. Her body ached and her chest felt like someone was pounding on it. 'Stupid Jay!' a voice cried out inside her, 'Why'd he have to go and get himself killed?!'

Tears trickled down her cheeks from behind her mask. 'I can't believe he's gone. And I was such a jerk to him! I can't believe I lost him to a STUPID SHARK!'

With that final thought she swung her fist around and brought it up against the shark's head. It slammed against it's eye. The Great White became disoriented, thrashing around. Why let this murderer off easy with a simple little dart? Especially when it had taken Jay away from her before she got to tell him how much she---

"Val?"

Val turned her head, searching for the person that had called to her. "Jay?"

'Don't lose your focus!' a third individual thought frantically as she watched the creature throw off Val and swim for Jay. 'Amateurs.' Elle shook her head and took the dart in her hand.

"JAY?!" Val couldn't believe this, she was going to lose him…AGAIN!

"Oh man! I should've stayed under that desk!" Jay thought aloud.

"YOU WERE GONNA ABANDON ME WITH THIS THING?!" Val shrieked.

'Uh-oh,' Jay thought, "What was I supposed to do? I dropped my dart!"

Val considered swimming past the shark and ripping Jay apart herself, but she decided he really wasn't worth the trouble. She must have been tripping or something when she got all choked up over the thought of him getting eaten.

"VAL?!" Jay screamed as the sharks jaws spread apart.

She thought about leaving him there, he certainly deserved it. But even Val had a limit to her grudges. She started to swim to Jay's rescue and then noticed another figure approaching from behind him. It was Elle. Now Val could have some fun giving Jay a little payback.

"Sorry Jay, I---can't---hear---you. You-you're…breaking up!"

Jay's eyes grew large. He was close enough to smell the shark's breath. Not something he'd always wanted to do. He did notice something odd. A small golden watch stuck between it's front teeth. It looked like something a ritzy high school girl would wear.

Elle was close enough to the shark to make a move now. She took a metal desk lamp out from behind her back and shoved it in between it's jaws. The creature tried to clamp down but found it impossible. 

"Let's get outta here!" Jay screamed as the metal lamp started to bend.

"ELLE?!" X was screaming, wondering where in the world his little human had gotten to. He had only left her for a second, what if---NO! she was safe, that shark couldn't have caught her off guard, Elle was supposed to be an expert.

Kay was diving below the surface, trying to spot the three agents through the murky water. "No luck." he spoke after resurfacing again.

"She's out there somewhere with that killing machine!" Yazmine cried, struggling against Zeeltor who was holding her back. "I've got to go in after her before she gets herself killed!"

"Experiment 562 is the same shark that killed the young girl that was swimming in the tank." Yanei sighed, "If the wrangler's down there, I'm afraid she's probably just it's second meal."

X stormed over to the woman, intent on causing her severe bodily harm for that comment. "Whoa Cos!" R shouted, jumping in front of Yanei. "What happened to looking for Elle?"

"There she is!" Delia called, pointing over to the water where Elle, Jay, and Val had surfaced.

"The shark's a little busy for the moment," Val coughed. "Elle shoved a lamp in his mouth!"

"Way to go Elle," Delia laughed, imaging a huge shark with a desk lamp between his jaws, it seemed almost comical, like in a cartoon.

Suddenly there was loud splashing behind the agents. Jay glanced over his shoulder and noticed the tall dorsal fin heading towards them, "AHH! I think we made it mad!"

"Good." Elle muttered. X was rushing towards her, no way she could swim fast enough to get away from that thing with broken ribs.

"Get out of the water!" Yazmine yelled. Everyone climbed up onto something. Everyone except Elle and X.

Yanei watched, their only hope was to dive under and swim for their lives. Even that was a faint hope. She thought back to the experimenting the Council had allowed Dr. Opus to do on the sharks. The agents would never be in danger if her people had just trusted the MIB to help them. Now it was her turn to help the agents.

Underneath the surface of the water Elle and X had dove under trying to avoid becoming the shark's next meal. X had his arm around Elle's waist again. She couldn't understand why in the world he was being so overprotective. Trying to save her neck, or his (providing that Zed should blame him if anything happened to her).

"X let go! I know what I'm doing!" Elle screamed.

"No way Little Ears!" X replied sternly, "You think I want to get my ears pulled off when R tells my mother about how I just let you get attacked?!"

They continued to argue as they swam, X dragging Elle along as she went off about what an idiot he was. "All I need is a distraction and I can get this dart in that thing's jaw!"

"A distraction? You mean like what? Getting KILLED??"

Yazmine was fighting Zeeltor, begging him to let her protect her friend. Zeeltor hated to see Yazmine this way but he couldn't in good conscience let her go out there. "It's too dangerous," he insisted, "Agent X is down there, he'll protect her."

Kay, Jay, and Val watched the shark gain on the partners as they drew closer to the counters. "They're not gonna make it." Val whispered.

Jay put an arm around her, "It's okay Val."

"How is it okay?!" Val demanded, glaring at him.

"Uh---it's gonna be okay." he stuttered.

A splash off to the side got everyone's attention. Yanei had disappeared. "Oh great," R groaned, "like we didn't have enough to deal with!"

Elle and X spotted the third figure in the water. "What are you doing?" Elle asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Yanei replied.

"What does it look like we're doing?!" X grumbled, jerking his head back towards the shark behind them.

"Well, as long as you're down here, can you give us a hand?"

Yanei nodded, "What should I do?"

"I need you to distract the shark." Elle answered, X didn't like where this was going.

Yanei reached for the holster she had put on over her wetsuit, there her laser cutter hang at her side. She pulled it out, set it on a thin and slightly deep cut, and then raked it across her body. A clean cut was made from the bottom right corner of her neck to the top left corner of her neck. Blood gushed fourth. 

Kay turned looked into the murky water as a bit of dark blue appeared at the surface, "What's she doing?" he puzzled aloud.

Yazmine turned, her eyes widened. "She wouldn't…"

"What?" Jay inquired, staring at the alien, she seemed to be in a trance, staring at the large shark.

"Agent Jay," Zeeltor gasped, "blood attracts sharks, it drives them into a frenzy."

"So in other words," Jay interpreted, "that's suicide!"

Zeeltor and Yazmine nodded together.

The blood surrounded Yanei as she struggled to keep her place in the water. "Let's hope Earth sharks are attracted to alien blood too."

"Speak for yourself," X muttered.

"You can let me go now," Elle sneered as the shark noticed the bloody alien in the water and changed it's coarse towards her.

X didn't really know what to do, let his partner go so that she could swim off to her death and possibly save the MIB, or hold on to the little human and drag her kicking and screaming to safety, most likely costing hundreds of lives in the process. It was at times like these that he really missed his old job as a peacekeeper.

A few choice words raced through Yanei's mind as the creature swam up, jaws opened wide. 'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.'

"This won't be pretty!" Jay gasped, blocking Val's view with both his hands.

The shark's head jerked to the side just as it got to Yanei. "Huh?"

It continued to whip it's head back and fourth, what was it doing? Then Yanei noticed something, a small dart in it's jaw. But there was something different about this dart, it was glowing yellow.

Yanei felt someone grab her arm and pull her back. It was Agent Elle. X was swimming up right behind her. "We've got to get out of here!" Elle informed them.

Everyone above the water's surface was staring silently at the shark, it wasn't thrashing around like the other's had done. What had gone wrong?

"Do you suppose this one's immune to the poison?" Zeeltor inquired.

"I doubt it." Yazmine replied.

The shark suddenly stopped moving altogether. A deafening silence followed. 

Agents and aliens began to lean in closer, looking at the skin of the shark. Odd, it seemed, porous, and the openings were growing larger. Like something out of a late night science fiction movie the shark was deteriorating from the inside out. "Gross." Val gagged.

"It's like some kinda flesh eating bacteria." Delia remarked, turning her nose up as the shark wriggled slightly, it's insides leaking out. "That does it, no more cheeseburgers from this cafeteria for a month! Well---maybe a week."

The shark grew weak, despite the sickening poison eating away at it's body, the creature was still alive.

"When did you slip a poison like THAT into the darts?" Zeeltor questioned Yazmine.

"I didn't." she replied. "Elle must have. This way there'll be no DNA left for someone else to use to repeat this experiment, and with Dr. Opus in custody, we did apprehend him didn't we?"

"That's what U and W were sent to do." Kay responded. 

"Kay?" a voice called.

"Right here." 

"I assume that that was the last shark?" Zed's voice asked.

Kay glanced up at the office, Zed was standing there with a communicator and had somehow linked to the frequency of the diving masks. "Yes."

"Good, I'm sending the boys up to retrieve the two aliens W and U caught up on the roof."

Kay nodded.

Val and Jay were watching the disgusting sight with a strange fascination, like a passing driver gawking at train wreck. "Val? Jay?"

"Here." they both muttered absently.

"You two okay?"

The two agents nodded. "Had enough excitement for one day?" Zed laughed looking down at Val's shocked face. She nodded again, her face resembled that of someone who had just been neuralyzed.

"What about you two?" Zed asked a stunned Yazmine and Zeeltor.

"We're good." Yazmine replied, not even looking at Zeeltor.

"Everyone seems to be peachy keen!" Zeeltor finally answered cheerily.

"That's nice." Zed looked around below, his eyes skimming the water for the three other volunteers. "R? Delia? How are you two holding up?"

"Okay," R peered out, wondering when his cousin and his little partner would surface.

Delia glared up at the office, "Oh this was FUN! I haven't had this much fun since Zeeltor jammed chips into my brain! We should do this every day! HEY!!! We could call it 'FISH FOOD FRIDAYS'!"

"I'll take it into consideration," Zed sighed, looking out at the murky water. Where were those three? "Elle? X? Sergeant Yanei?"

The agents and aliens in Zed's office were cheering as the shark was finally reduced to an indistinguishable mass of blood and guts. The poison would have it completely decomposed to nothing by the time the sun had risen.

Agents were sent out to retrieve the prisoners while Zed continued to call the names of the three volunteers. "Elle? X? Sergeant Yanei?"

One by one, the agents and aliens in the office stopped cheering. "ELLE?!"

One agent was tapped on the shoulder, "What? We won!"

"We've got two agents missing in action." the other agent explained.

  
"Oh---no."

"X?!"

Down below, Kay dove into the water. R and Delia and already jumped in to search for their friends (and in R's case, cousin).

"I can't believe we came through all this, just to lose them now." Val mumbled before defiantly jumping into the water.

"Third time's the charm." Yazmine sighed.

"SERGEANT YANEI??!"

Jay was in the water now. Everyone was. Even the other agents and aliens that had been unwilling to budge from their safe hiding places earlier.

"WHERE ARE YOU THREE?!"

"I don't think they're coming up Z-Man." Jay said sadly. Poor Elle, she'd been a good friend and a fellow agent, Yanei'd made one heck of a mistake by hiring that wacko to mutate sharks but at least she'd owned up to it. Heck, he was even going to miss that pointy eared human bashing alien, Agent---

"AAAHHH!!!!!"

SPLASH!

X looked down at the annoying human flopping around in the three feet deep water which was rapidly being drained by some agents Zed had sent to install the drainage system.

"Pathetic." he muttered.

"WHOA MAN!" Jay choked out upon regaining his balance. "WHERE'D YOU COME FROM?"

X just rolled his eyes, humans could be so stupid sometimes. It was a wonder they weren't all wiped out eons ago!

"OW!" A familiar female voice complained from behind X.

"Little Ears still hasn't realized how idiotic it is to swim around with broken ribs," X laughed, "She'll never learn."

Elle glared at X, "Oh VERY FUNNY!"

"Hey," X continued laughing, putting his hands up in defense, "if it wasn't for me you'd have been food for that shark."

"It was dying you moron!"

"And you would've been it's last meal!"

"Nice to see you two are alright." Zed chuckled.

The cheering started again.

Yanei had surfaced while the two agents were arguing, she glanced around and her gaze settled on Yazmine. She looked sourly at the alien sergeant for a moment before sighing and allowing her features to soften. "I'm glad you're okay. Now maybe you'll understand what I mean by it's foolish to tamper with nature?"

"I think we've all learned a lesson." Yanei agreed. Extending her hand and then waving it around the room.

Yazmine looked, Yanei's hand passed before several high ranking aliens of various species from all over the universe. If they'd relay what they saw to the governments of their home planets then surely this incident would never be repeated again. There would be no fourth time. Finally, the nightmare was over.

"You okay down there Sergeant?" Zed asked, "Wouldn't want to have Lyndon on my case after a mess like this."

"I'm just fine Sir." Yanei replied, glad that Yazmine didn't seem eager to wring her neck after all this.

"Great, now I'd like everyone to report to my office pronto." Zed disconnected and then turned to the crowd of aliens and agents standing all around him, "And as for all of you---OUT, NOW!"

******

The last of the agents were scurrying out of the room, closing the door behind them, as Zed sighed and sat down at his desk.

The door flew open and a drenched Agent Delia stormed in. "Hello there ZED! Sir, can I see your wallet for a second? I need to GO SHOPPING TO REPLACE MY WARDROBE."

Zed sighed and stared up at the agent as the other volunteers walked in and took seats.

Delia pulled on her stained white shirt. "SHARK BLOOD does NOT wash out!"

"Agent Delia--"

"…and WHILE I am at it--- all us ladies are going to get our hair done BECAUSE all this gross water IS NOT GOOD for hair!"

X rolled his eyes again, while R and Jay chuckled. It wasn't often that they got to witness Zed getting chewed out.

Looking sternly at the agent Zed simply stated, "No."

With almost any other agent the matter would've been resolved, but this was no ordinary agent. THIS was AGENT DELIA.

Calmly Delia removed her black jacket, taking it firmly in her hands she held it out over Zed's desk and started wringing it out. Shark blood and water ran all over his paper work.

Zed raised an eyebrow, "I suppose I had that coming."

Kay grinned. Jay bit his tongue to hold back laughter. Val chuckled openly.

"I'll see if Agent V is free for some last minute appointments." Zed compromised.

"That's better." Delia smiled and took a seat.

"I wanted to congratulate you all on a job well done." Zed continued. "Dr. Opus has been captured and is currently awaiting his trial in the Zubzang Galaxy. I hear they're pretty harsh sentencers there."

"What about the Council?" Yanei inquired.

"Turns out the MIB negotiators solved the crisis earlier, just before Dr. Opus left the aquarium with the sharks. Of course, you know there will be consequences for all the trouble caused here?"

Yanei nodded, "The Council will make amends by any way you deem necessary."

"Good to hear. Oh and Elle," Zed turned to the shark wrangler who was clutching her side, "I want you to get down to the lab with Zeeltor and Yazmine just as soon as the agents finish draining the base floor."

Elle looked up, squinting in pain, "No problem."

Zed took a final look around at the heroic agents and aliens before him, "Once again, great job, you're dismissed."

The agents started to head out of the room, Elle stayed in her seat. X turned when he didn't notice her heading for the exit. "Great," he grumbled, "where would you weak little humans be without us aliens to do everything for you?"

Elle turned to snap at him but was cut off when he bent down and scooped her up, "Let's move it Little Ears, haven't got all day. Hope you need lots of shots!" X chuckled.

******

An hour later, the sun was up, the Great White was nothing more but a suppressed memory, and the agents were all back in their living quarters, drying off and preparing for yet another long 37 hour day.

Agent Delia waited around in Zed's office, he had gone down to the kitchenette to discuss the disappearance of about six cans of his premium coffee during the flood with his prime suspects---the Worms. She was intent on finding out when Agent V would be able to fix her hair. It was a mess! All frizzy and---what did this button do?

Delia's curiosity got the better of her again as she walked over to a small clear, square shaped button that was on the side of one of Zed's walls. With a shrug, and a quick look around, she pressed it.

Instantly sprinklers popped out of hidden panels on the ceiling of Zed's office, water was sprayed down at a surprisingly fast rate.

"Oh crap!" Delia cried, pushing the button harder, maybe that would turn off the water. "My hair is going to be ruined beyond repair now!"

Then she noticed the door, someone was at the door! It was being shoved opened and Zed could be heard mumbling something out in the hall. Delia quickly dashed over and shoved the door shut before Zed could get a foot in.

"What the--" Zed stood puzzled, he pressed against the door, it didn't budge, 'locked'. "Who's in there?"

Delia panicked and called out the first name to pop into her head, "Uh---AGENT X!"

Zed groaned, he was NOT in the mood for this, "I should've know. AGENT DELIA, OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!"

Delia looked at the room that was rapidly filling up with water, she had a sneaky suspicion that Zeeltor had designed those sprinklers. She was up to her knees in water now, oh was she ever IN DEEP!

"AGENT DELIA!"

'He doesn't sound happy,' Delia winced.

"Um, coming!"

"NOW!"

Zed tapped his foot on the floor, the door swung open and water knocked him off balance, sending him crashing against the opposite wall. "AGENT DELIA!!!!"

Delia was sprawled out on the floor at his feet, she moaned and shook her head. "Ohh, surf's up." Then she noticed Zed and his blood red face, 'Uh-oh.' She jumped to her feet and fled down the hall, "Sorry Sir can't talk now, got paperwork to do!"

Zed's face slowly returned to its normal color. He got up, wrung out his tie, and headed into his office. The fish from his aquarium were flopping around on the floor. After catching each one and tossing them back into the tank he went to his desk he calmly picked up the phone. With a collected voice he said, "We're going to need a floor buffer in my office," then hung up.

________________________________________________________________________

In case you were wondering---that's THE END!


End file.
